Anya's Adventures
by Anya Maygo
Summary: I know, I know, this isn't actually about THE Kisara. But this character of mine's sort of a reincarnation of Kisara from another world. Everybody's been curious about where my username came from, so here's where it all started.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

CHAOTIA

Hi. I'm Anya. No, actually my name's Kisara Anastasia Maygo. Anya's shorter, though, and easier to throw around in casual conversation.

In case you're wondering what I look like, well, I've got kind of light skin, blue eyes, and my hair is white. The white hair is actually a trademark for psychics here. I'll leave it at that.

It's _because_ I'm a psychic, though, that I'm stuck in pure torture, otherwise known as "training."

"Kisara, are you paying attention?"

Whoops!

"Um…what did you say, Madame Celestia?"

"I said, in order for you to travel from one place to another with just your will, you need to _focus _your will on your destination of choice."

I sighed. "Remind me again why I have to _learn_ this?"

"In fulfilling the prophecy and saving Chaotia, you must be prepared to accomplish just about anything."

Maybe she didn't notice my emphasis of choice. I already know _how_ to teleport. I've even done it several times. I've just been extremely careful in who I show my power to. I stared at the ceiling, searching for patience.

"Yeah, yeah: 'A strong psi lady who's strong-willed by nature will defeat a great evil and restore peace,' I've heard it all before. And we both know that I'm the only girl in years who's stubborn as an ox _and_ psychically strong, so it has to be me."

"Your stubbornness will serve you just as well in defeating this evil, as you do not give up, either in a challenge or in _not listening_." But she was smiling.

I grinned back. Even though I wasn't that thrilled with the situation, Celestia was my favorite teacher. Her only two skills – teleportation and level 3 telepathy – serve her in quite good stead, and the two white stripes in her brown hair show just about everyone that.

"I know. I just don't want to do this."

"Are you being honest with yourself in that sentence?"

I stopped within my own mind. I hate it when she does that: makes me question myself. But…

"Well…I guess my problem is that nobody can help me. They're not strong enough."

"Kisara…" She hesitated.

That arrested my attention. She didn't _hesitate_, unless there was something critical hanging in the balance of her next words. "What? _What?_"

"The prophecy says that a strong-willed, powerful psychic lady will defeat evil…" and she hesitated again, probably waiting for an interruption.

Well, this time it wasn't coming. I always got lectured for making assumptions about what my teachers were going to say before they finished, but not this time. I cocked my head to the side and waited for her to finish that sentence.

"It doesn't say _how_."

I stared at her. What was _that_ supposed to – wait.

All at once, I was grinning again. "Madame Celestia, are you _sure_ you're not a lawyer?"

She grinned back. "If one looks carefully, one can always find the loopholes of that sort in prophecies. How about you meditate on a possible solution to your problem while I go find some lunch for us?" Without waiting for my answer, she just left the room.

I looked around the room. Except for my mat, her mat, a chair and a writing table, the room was empty. _Well, I suppose it's time to meditate._

I crossed my legs, let my hands rest on my knees, and closed my eyes. This wasn't exactly the same meditation that I used to strengthen my powers, because when I was meditating _that_ way I couldn't think about anything. Here, I was specifically thinking about how to solve a problem.

_Let's see…my main problem is that I don't want to do this alone. Nobody in Chaotia has enough strength to help, and besides, they probably haven't seen the loophole that Celestia has. She might want to help me, but the Council probably won't let her. Therefore, my only option is to look outside this world and find suitable people who can help me._

I let my mind wander as soon as I reached that conclusion. I had to find someone who'd either had a great deal of exposure to magic of any kind or had had their minds or their souls removed from their bodies more than once, preferably both.

I searched as far as I could and found several possible choices. "Tagging" each one, I pulled back into my head and opened my eyes. Some paper and an ink bottle were right in front of me, and the papers were covered with pictures of people – the same people I'd found in my spin-around search. I'm never fully aware of when my mind is taking images and drawing them, that just happens. I studied the people on the lists and separated the pages into two piles: my short list and my long list. The long list was too long, so I stuck to the short list.

I'd just finished doing that when Madame Celestia came back with some food. "Any luck with your solution?"

I waved my hands at the papers. "See for yourself."

She picked up one paper from my long list and studied it. "What is this?"

"This is my list of people from Earth who would qualify as people with psychic potential."

"Earth?" Her eyebrows had gone up in surprise. Was she testing me? I guess once a teacher, always a teacher.

"Yeah. Nobody here will notice the loophole in the prophecy, and the Council won't let you help me, because you're 'just' a teleport-and-telepath. But if they're not _from_ here, then they won't even _know_ about the prophecy! It's flawless!"

"Kisara Anastasia Maygo, you are _not_ going to bring all these people to Chaotia."

"Of course not; what do you take me for? You've got a page from my _long_ list. I'll be picking people off my _short_ list."

She pulled her mat over next to mine and sat down, putting down her page. "Tell me a little about them, then."

I tapped each of the ten people on my short list with a finger. "Number One," a tall man with long hair that hid his face, "used to work in a very important position, but has retired now. Number Two," an equally tall woman with long wavy hair and a sassy posture that made me like her already, "is a pure loner at heart, a wanderer. Number Three," another tall man, this one with short hair and a sweeping coat, "is in charge of an important position. Numbers Four and Five," a teenage boy with shaggy hair and dark skin, and a taller woman with long hair and equally dark skin, "are brother and sister, and they no longer have any specific duty. Numbers Six through Ten," another teenage boy with shaggy hair, but with light skin, a teenage girl with shoulder-length hair, a teenage boy with a strange hairstyle and shaded skin, another teen boy with messed up hair, and a boy with large eyes and the craziest hair ever, "are the best of friends, and won't leave each other for anything. At least, that's the case with Seven through Ten. Six isn't as close to them as that, but he _is_ their friend."

"Well," she sighed, "ten is better than whatever your other number was. But are you sure you want to bring ten people here?"

"If they don't end up strong enough to help us out in some form, then I can just send them back with no harm done. But I'm expecting great things from Seven through Ten. From what I found, their friendship did great things in their past."

"All right, then. I leave it in your capable hands. You determine how it is you're going to get them here without them being missed over there." And with that, she left again.

Then she looked back in. "Oh, and all of your teachers know by now that there's nothing they can teach you that you don't already know. I'll be the only one staying near you to make sure you don't run into some kind of situation while doing this." That was when she left for real.

So my secret was out, big whoop. I was going to tell them sometime, anyway. _Meanwhile, back in the study room..._

I took a bite out of my loaf of bread and thought about it. Number One was probably the easiest: just talk to the guy and hope he'll say yes. I'm afraid the rest may as well consider themselves drafted. After that, Number Two was next easiest: just kidnap her while she's sleeping and stash her ride somewhere where it wouldn't be taken.

Actually, all the numbers after Number One could be abducted in their sleep. The trouble would be making sure they wouldn't be missed. I could link their minds back to partly-substantial images that would take their places, but it would still need an anchor so that I could have a free mind for this situation. After all, this was the worst time for me to find out if I have an upper limit.

Let's see…Number Three was the easiest to find an anchor for: he had a little brother who was on the long list. All I'd have to do was up his potential so that his power was at least passive, and he could be the anchor. Numbers Four and Five also had a perfect anchor on the long list: a friend of the family with weird tattoos on his face.

Numbers Six through Ten were going to give me some trouble, obviously. I mean, they did have a close person on the long list: Ten had a grandfather. But could I really up his power enough for him to support five images? There wasn't exactly anyone else from the long list that was living near them. Well, I guess I'd have to help him out and set a piece of my subconscious on him all the time. What a bore. But what can't be helped –

Of course! I'll set Celestia on helping him keep that amount of images active! If she wasn't a telepath, I'd never be able to pull that off, but as it is…

_**Madame Celestia?**_

I saw a picture of Celestia straightening up and setting her hand by her ear.

_**I have this idea, but in order for it to work on Numbers Six through Ten I need you to help the anchor hold his place.**_

I already knew she'd see my idea, for it was in my head, all in metaphors: Celestia was holding a trough and pouring energy into it, and the energy was flowing down to the old man, who was holding five ropes, each connected to his five responsibilities.

The Celestia in the picture shook her head, smiling – she felt like I was overreaching myself somehow, but she couldn't place it – and picked up a bowl from a table, holding it out to a picture of me.

_**Thanks. I knew you'd understand.**_

With that, I cut communication. Now all I needed to do was figure out what order I'd tackle everyone in and make a game plan for convincing them I needed help that they could give me, not to mention how to teach them to use their powers, which would definitely awaken for real once they came here.

Oh, boy. Considering Number Three's usual attitude, this will be fun.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

CLASSROOM, TWO MINUTES LATER

**Anya**

_Okay, maybe this is harder than I thought. Sure, Number One is the easiest to figure out in theory, but actually coming up with a script for talking to him is next to impossible! The true easiest is Number Two._

_All right, then: let's do this._ I spread my arms out wide, closed my eyes, and focused.

EARTH; JUST OUTIDE UNNAMED CITY; 12:34 p.m.

I opened my eyes and looked around. There was an old shack to my left, and a road of unusual form to my right. If my tracking cast for my transport was correct, Number Two was in the shed. I slipped over and looked in. There she was, leaning against an unusual machine, eating.

I felt bad about doing this, but I didn't want to try and explain what was going on right this second. I held my hand out and focused again. This time, my focus was on something different.

About five seconds later, her head drooped and she tipped forward. I caught her mentally before she ever hit the floor and smiled to myself. Moving things with my mind and talking with my mind were things that I could do while barely thinking about it.

I walked in and took anything that could spoil from her packs. Then I checked in her subconscious to make sure I didn't miss anything that she'd want taken care of. One thing: keys. I looked around and finally found them on the machine. Grabbing all those and her, I focused my mind again.

CHAOTIA; CLASSROOM

I dropped her stuff on the floor and pulled her over to the wall, kinetically dragging my class mat over for an impromptu bed. I'd bring her a blanket after I finished one last thing. I gently touched her forehead and set a kind of block on her mind. The block wouldn't hurt her; it would simply keep her asleep until I had everyone here.

_I'm not being mean,_ I told myself, _I'm simply keeping myself from having to explain myself ten times over! I'd rater tell the whole story all at once, twice if completely necessary. Okay, now I have Number Two. No,_ I corrected myself, _use her name now she's here: Mai Valentine._

DUELIST KINGDOM; 3:47 p.m.

**Maximillion Pegasus**

I was bored. I mean, I'm retired now and all, but there was nothing going on! A man can grow tired of nothing happening. There I was, sitting by the fish pond sipping wine for lack of anything better to do.

Then I looked into the reflection of my wineglass. A lovely young woman with white hair was standing there, looking nervous. I stood up and turned around. "Why, hello there, darling! What did I do to obtain this honor?"

She hesitated a moment longer, then said the most astonishing thing. "You have been exposed to magic, Mister Pegasus sir."

I raised my eyebrows. "I beg your pardon?"

"You heard me. Your exposure to magic has brought you to my attention, because frankly, I need your help."

I studied her for a minute. Then I gestured with my wineglass to the other chair. "Come, sit down. Let's not stand on parade, it's just us two."

She walked – no, she glided over to the chair and sat down, smoothing down the skirt of her lovely blue gown and still looking a little ill at ease.

I sat down again and said, "Now then, tell me how I could help you with your dilemma." I took a sip while waiting for her answer.

"To shorten a longer story that I'm saving for if you say yes, I'm from another world, I've been selected to fulfill a prophecy, and I don't want to do it alone. Your exposure to magic has given you magical potential in my world, which is why I've come to you."

I laughed. I couldn't help it; it all sounded so preposterous.

Her lovely brows came down. "You don't believe me."

"My dear, too much has happened to me for me to disbelieve it. But you've come to me, an old man, for help? Really, I think you overestimate my strength."

Then it was her turn to laugh; she had a nice laugh. "You honestly think I decided to only come to you? You flatter yourself. I've already recruited another, but I know her strength won't be enough to help me on its own. Counting her and you, I have ten people to talk to about my problem. And I'm afraid…" she blushed quite prettily, looking very sheepish, "I'm not even giving nine out of ten the option of saying no. I need them too badly. It's because you're 'an old man' that I'm giving you the option."

I pretended to think about it. The truth, however, was that her intervention into my boredom was quite timely. I was good and ready to say yes.

There was one thing I wanted, however… "I'd like to know the name of my…employer. After all, you already know my name."

She smiled, rather wryly. "You want my name? In its entirety, it's Kisara Anastasia Maygo. Please, though, call me Anya. And I'm afraid it'll be less my employing you at first as my teaching you." She stood up and came around the table, holding out her hand. "Can your pride let you be demoted?"

I stood up, setting down the wineglass, and took her hand. "We're never done learning, Miss Maygo. I'd be happy to join you in this little misadventure."

She beamed at me. "Excellent. Now, go make all the arrangements you need to. I have some other duties to take care of today, but I'll come and get you tomorrow morning."

"I look forward to it."

She smiled at me again, turned, and started walking off. Then I caught a glimpse of another room just past her, and just as suddenly, it was gone – and her with it!

I stared at the place she had been. "Well," I said to empty air, "This could prove to be well worth my while."

MOTO GAME SHOP

**Anya**

Whew. That took less effort than I thought it would. Though I'm glad I'd decided to dress up a bit before going there. Now I have to make the connection between the old grandfather and Celestia. He's first because he has the most connected to him.

I kept the barest touch on his mind so that he wouldn't see me and focused on the power that lay within him. It was there, just barely moving. He'd had his soul removed from his body twice, and been exposed to a very old form of magic once earlier in his life when he was still active. If he was actually coming to Chaotia, he'd probably be a Level 3 telepath and a very weak something else as well. I carefully woke the telepathy side of his power and "gave the address" to Celestia.

_**Got him, Madame?**_ I asked.

I felt an affirmitive.

_**Good.**_ Then I broke connection and sent off five lines from him to each of his charges. I wouldn't turn those lines into images until I went to pick them up from their beds.

_Okay. One down, two to go._

EGYPT

_Whew! I should have changed into something cooler!_ I focused a small breeze around me, just long enough to cool off a little. Then I went to find Tattoo-Face.

He wasn't far. Considering how I'd set up that transport, of course he wasn't far. I evaluated him, keeping him from noticing me. He'd had a great deal of exposure to that same old magic that the grandfather had been exposed to in his active years. That made him a relatively strong…not a telepath, his soul had never been separated from his body. Probably an empath, or even a kinetic, though I was betting on the empath. I strengthened the power in him and threw the lines to his two charges. Then I warped out of there as fast as I could. I mean, _boy_ that was hot!

KAIBA CORP

I hid my presence from the little boy who was fiddling with the machine in front of him and felt into his mind. His power was as still as the others had been. He'd had repeated exposure to old magic – that same old magic again, and I'm starting to think it all came from the same place – and even had his soul removed from his body twice! That made him a Level 3 telepath, and he had one other power that I couldn't give a name to. _Whatever._ I strengthened his telepathy, carefully making sure it wouldn't warp out of control as he got older, and threw the line to his brother. This would be interesting when I went to pick him up. _Now I'd better go home, prepare their beds, and wait for nightfall._

_Then I'm going to turn into a kidnapper._


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

CHAOTIA; CLASSROOM; MIDNIGHT

**Anya**

I'd rested up and prepared eight more beds: two more on Mai's side of the room, and six on the other side of the room. Now I was going to undertake the trickiest part of my mission.

I was going to collect my remaining recruits.

EARTH; EGYPT; MIDNIGHT

Whoa! It's a lot colder over here at night! Okay…back to the mission. I wandered into the room for Number…no. No more numbers. This is Ishizu. I slipped over to her bed and carefully, with a fingertip, touched her forehead. Doing this, I gave her the same block I'd given Mai which would keep her asleep until conditions were more favorable to me. Then I lifted her up, draped her over my shoulder, and focused on the line I'd thrown between her stepbrother and her subconscious.

A shadowy version of her slowly got more solid on her bed until it was practically real.

_Good enough._ Then I slipped to her brother's room, still carrying her. _Carrying her this way is harder than I thought, but I need my mind powers open for this job. Focusing on more than one thing at a time right now is nearly impossible._

Her brother was – whoa! What was he doing up?!

I sent a cautious thought of sleep into his head and he tipped forward onto his desk. I'd received from that touch that he simply couldn't sleep. At least I'd included the block in that touch. I gently touched his back and focused on the link between their stepbrother and his subconscious to form the copy for him. In making the copy, I put him back to bed. Then I lifted him up onto my other shoulder.

_Whew! Two at once is hard! How do the guys manage to do stuff like this?_

CHAOTIA; CLASSROOM; 12:05 AM

I used my kinesis to move Ishizu into her bed, and then turned around to put Marik into his bed. Personally, I hoped that Marik would be the only person still awake tonight.

EARTH; WHEELER RESIDENCE; 12:06 AM

May as well do this guy first. I carefully walked over to his bed. At least he was in bed. The only question was, is he actually asleep?

"I'll have three of the Boston crème and six chocolate glazed – how much is that?"

I nearly jumped out of my skin at that, but all he did was roll over.

"Ah, just put it on my tab."

_Sheesh! He talks in his sleep!_

I put a block on his mind to keep him asleep, heaved him up into my arms, and focused on the connection between Mister Moto and his subconscious.

Slowly – probably more slowly because of either the distance between living spaces, or the fact that his weight was making it hard for me to focus – a shadow version appeared and intensified.

_There. Now that's over. Let's get this dopey guy back to my – wait…there's something he'd miss if he didn't have it during this adventure._

I turned back and looked around the room. There – a belt with a deck of cards in it. I grabbed it with my mind and connected it around my own waist.

CHAOTIA; CLASSROOM; 12:07 AM

Putting him to bed in relief, I pulled the belt off and dropped it next to his head. Then I consulted my list.

_Let's see. I've got Mai, Ishizu, Marik, and now Joey. Who should I get next? …Yeah. I'll grab him next._

EARTH; TAYLOR RESIDENCE; 12:07 AM

I slipped over, put the block on his mind, and heaved him up.

_Not as heavy as Joey, but heavy nonetheless. Let's finish this fast._

I touched the tie between Mister Moto and his subconscious and formed the copy. Then I kinetically grabbed his deck of cards and headed for home.

CHAOTIA; 12:08 AM

I put him to bed between Marik and Joey and set his deck above his head.

_There, Tristan. You keep these two from fighting, ha. I'll go get the rest of them._

EARTH; GARDNER RESIDENCE; 12:08 AM

I felt a little bad about transferring her. But it had to be done. I touched her forehead to set the block and picked her up.

_Definitely lighter than Joey._

Tapping the link between her and Mister Moto was one of the easiest sets to do. Then I grabbed her deck and headed back.

CHAOTIA; 12:09 AM

I set her between Mai and Ishizu and placed her deck above her head like I did with Mai.

_There you go, Tea. Sleep well. I'll go get the other two set to Mister Moto now._

EARTH; BAKURA RESIDENCE; 12:09 AM

I felt _really_ bad about doing this to him. I mean, he had gone through some really dark magic and even been possessed by an evil spirit for prolonged periods of time. But that same dark magic and evil spirit had given him a great deal of potential magically.

I set the block, picked him up, and set the shadow. What I hadn't decided was if I was going to grab his deck. In the end, I did.

CHAOTIA; 12:10 AM

I set Ryo on Joey's other side and set his deck over his head. One left for Mister Moto, and then I'd be almost done.

EARTH; MOTO GAME SHOP; 12:11 AM

I slipped into his room and looked at him. He was so cute asleep. So now I'd have to make sure he stayed that way until I was completely ready to tell him.

I touched his forehead with a fingertip to set the block and immediately felt resistance!

_What? Has his power grown enough to resist without his knowing? _All right, it's time for Plan B. I decided to try talking to him in his sleep.

_**I'm not going to hurt you. If you won't let me prevent you from waking up, then at least trust me.**_

There was a moment of silence. Then, he sighed in his sleep and rolled over.

I took that as a yes and picked him up. Then I touched the link between him and his grandfather to form the shadow, grabbed the belt with his deck, and left.

CHAOTIA; 12:12 AM

I set him down next to Ryo and marveled at how different they were, and yet how alike. They were like opposite sides of the same coin in the past, with Ryo being tails and Yugi being heads.

_Well, enough daydreaming,_ I told myself as I set Yugi's belt above his head, _you have one more person to collect._

EARTH; KAIBA CORP; 12:13 AM

I carefully approached his bed.

_Anya, you're such a wicked little old lady. How many guy's bedrooms have you slipped into by now? Six?_

I was right to tease myself at that moment, because I'd gotten taken aback by this bed's occupant. Seto was really quite handsome, and he seemed so peaceful laying there. I was almost hesitant to touch his forehead for applying the block.

Well, I managed, at least. Then I carefully lifted him up onto my shoulder and tapped the connection between him and his brother. It was a _strong_ connection, and that wasn't even all my doing! They were extremely close, naturally! Even though Seto was about the same weight as Joey, I had no problem keeping this focus going.

Anyway, the shadow copy formed, and I looked around for his deck. I didn't see it, so I had to look into his mind to figure out what he did with it.

_He really cares about that deck. Why else would he lock it up in a box that only he can access under normal circumstances?_

I focused my hardest on each card from his deck, making them slip out of the box, fly along corridors, and under the door into my hand.

CHAOTIA; 12:15 AM

I put him into bed next to Yugi and set his deck over his head.

_You really are a wonderful person, Seto. I just hope being here will bring that out in you._

I caught myself yawning and went off to bed. After all, I wanted to seem eagle-eyed when I went to get Maximillion in the morning.

* * *

**_A/N: I know, kind of repetitive. But it'll definitely get more interesting in the next chapter. ^_^_**


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

EARTH; DUELIST KINGDOM; 9:05 AM

**Maximillion Pegasus**

_Well, I'm all packed. Now all I have to do is wait for the lovely Kisara Anastasia Maygo to come and get me._ Truth be told, I was rather amused at myself for agreeing to this arrangement. The master duelist was to become a student again, and the mentor was to be almost a mere child!

_**Watch who you're calling a child, Maximillion; I have quite enough power to discipline you should I have to.**_

That gave me quite the start. "I know my sight isn't what it used to be, but where are you?" I asked, looking around attempting to find the source of the voice.

"Don't bother," she said from behind me, "that first comment was telepathic. I judge from your most recent thoughts that you're ready to go? What have you told your, um, staff?"

_Why does she feel the need to do that to people?_ I asked myself as I turned around. Her outfit was much more casual than the day before, though its brown still set off her hair nicely. "I told them that I'm going on a vacation, return date unknown."

She nodded. "That was wise, not to set a return date. And," she grinned, rather mischievously, "I feel like popping around and telepathically surprising people because I can't do that at home. By the time I'm done with you, though, I won't be able to surprise you either." She held out her hand. "Shall we?"

I stared at her for a minute while picking up my suitcase. _She really _did_ just read my thoughts! I really ought not to be surprised, but – _

_**True, and **_**I**_** really ought not to pry into your mind.**_ She had the grace to look sheepish, at least.

I took hold of her hand. "No worries, Anya. Let us go to your home world."

The next moment I felt quite queer, like…there was no way to describe it! It was very strange; I couldn't see, hear, or feel anything – not Anya's hand in mine, nothing!

I didn't have time to even dream of panicking when my feet were on solid ground again, my legs were giving out, and Anya was supporting me.

"Sorry. I forgot to warn you what teleportation's normally like when someone's just starting out."

"I'm…all right, really."

"Nonsense, I was the one at fault for this weakness; it had happened to me when I first teleported."

That was news. I looked up. "Really?"

"Really. Now," she pulled me back upright and looked around, "my other recruits are right through that door. I'll take your things and go stash them somewhere."

"Now, Anya, really…" My protest was rather weak, as she already had my suitcase in her hand.

"Chill. I'm not putting you through any gauntlet today; this will be orientation only. Now will you go in there and tell the others that food will be coming along shortly, and clothing will be supplied by their asking. They should be near awake by now." And with that, she walked off.

I looked around. She had left me in a hallway, with only one door close enough to qualify as the door she was referring to. So, I went to see who her other recruits were.

**Yugi Moto**

I woke up a little disoriented. _Had I heard a voice in my dreams?_ Then I looked around. I wasn't in my room anymore, and I wasn't alone. Instead, I was in a room that was built like some medieval room with stone walls, a stone floor, and even a stone ceiling. And everyone was here – Joey, Tristan, Tea, Bakura, Mai, the Ishtars, and Kaiba!

Kaiba was also waking up. "Hey, Kaiba. Where are we?"

"Hm?" He turned in my direction, still bleary-eyed. "Oh…Yugi. What are you doing in my dream?"

"Uh…you're not dreaming, Kaiba."

He blinked at me a little longer. Then he finally woke up all the way. "_What?_ All right, Yugi, where are we?"

"I just asked _you_ that."

Kaiba's yell had woken up everyone else far enough for them to realize our situation.

"Yugi?" Tea asked, "What's going on?"

"What are we doing here?" Marik asked the room in general.

"What's for breakfast?" That was Joey, of course.

Then the door opened. Pegasus was standing there in the doorway, just looking in at us. "Why, if it isn't Kaiba Boy! Not to mention Yugi Boy and his whole fan club!"

"Spare me the pleasantries, Pegasus," Kaiba snarled, lunging up, "where are we?"

Pegasus held up a hand. "Now, now, Kaiba, don't get all nasty on me. This isn't my doing. The, ah, more appropriate target for your anger has requested I tell you that breakfast will be coming along shortly…"

"All right!" Joey cheered.

"…And that for proper clothing to come, all you need to do is ask. And now, since I have very little idea where I am, I believe I shall join you in waiting for breakfast to come." And with that, he just sat down between Ishizu and Kaiba.

Bakura leaned over to look at Pegasus. "Do you know what's going on?" he asked.

"Yes, but then again, I was told a lot more than you all were. I shall permit your abductor to do the explaining."

Mai glared at him, but then again, Kaiba was glaring, too. So I suppose it didn't make that much difference.

Joey suddenly yelled and fell off his bed. "Ghosts!"

We all looked at the door, and the plates that had just floated in.

"D-don't worry, Joey," Tristan tried to reassure him, "there's got to be a reasonable…"

"Breakfast!" Joey popped back up off the floor and grabbed one of the plates from the air.

_Well. That didn't bother _him_ long._ It was all I could do not to laugh.

"Oh, there's an explanation," Pegasus spoke up, sounding like _he_ was going to laugh, "but it isn't quite reasonable. You see, your abductor is a psi: fully capable of moving things without touching them," he reached up and took one plate from the air in front of him, "and reading our minds."

Kaiba glared at his plate suspiciously while it just hovered in front of him, almost expectantly. I shook my head and took the plate offered to me. Apparently, the menu was eggs, pancakes, sausage and bacon, though the eggs – whoa! Pegasus wasn't kidding about our host being able to read minds! My eggs were fried, which was the way I wanted them to be! Everyone else followed suit in claiming a plate.

Tea was the first to speak after a few bites. "Hey, this is good!"

Pegasus smiled at Kaiba. "Are you going to stare at that plate all day, Kaiba Boy? It's quite harmless, you know, and all you're accomplishing is letting your breakfast get cold."

Finally, Kaiba took his plate and started eating.

**Joey**

When we were all done with breakfast, the plates floated off through the doorway. Then in came a – whoa-_ho_! A completely gorgeous girl with white hair and blue eyes! Her brown outfit was a little drab, but I wasn't complaining.

She looked around at us for a minute. Then she said, out of the blue, "My name is Kisara Anastasia Maygo. Please, though, call me Anya; it's shorter."

Kaiba spoke up. I'm pretty sure he interrupted her. "Were you the one who brought us here?"

She studied him for a long moment. "Whatever my answer, you can't touch me." Waiting a moment longer, she finally said, "Yes."

Kaiba lunged off his bed and stormed over to her. "Now listen, you! Either you send me back right now," his hand just touched her collar in a prep to threaten her –

And suddenly Kaiba was flying backwards into the back wall! Pegasus even had to dodge!

Silence filled the room. Then Anya said, cold as ice, "I believe I said, don't touch me."

That did it. I cracked up. "Anya, you've got to teach _me_ how to do that!"

I pulled a smile from her! "Why, that's the reason I've brought you here, Joey. All of you."

_All right! I'll be a match for Kaiba!_

**Ryo Bakura**

"Could you please explain a little better?" I asked.

"Of course, Ryo. It's like this: you are in another world named Chaotia. It's my home. And unfortunately, it's in danger."

Yugi spoke up. "How did I know you were going to say that?" He sounded resigned, probably because…

"Because you've heard that several times before, but that's not the point. The point is that a prophecy discovered by one of our psychics in their meditations had said that a strong-willed psi girl would save Chaotia. The problem with that is, I'm the only psi here who's a girl, strong enough to make any difference, and stubborn as a pig. I don't want to be a hero by myself. If I saved Chaotia all by myself, which isn't likely, then I'm going to have to retreat to the highest mountain, trying to avoid hundreds of suitors."

"I can see why that would be a problem," Yugi commented. "On Earth, a large position of power would attract plenty of the younger generation into groups called 'fan clubs.' They could be quite a lot of trouble. I should know; I've dealt with enough of that as the King of Games."

Kisara nodded. "But one of my teachers just yesterday pointed out a loophole in the prophecy. The loophole is this: the prophecy only says that I'm going to save Chaotia. It _doesn't_ say _how_. So if I decide to get help…"

Tristan jumped up. "Then there's nothing that anyone can do about it! I want to meet this teacher of yours!"

"Maybe you will sometime while I'm teaching you. But anyway, today is strictly orientation. Studies will start tomorrow."

Pegasus asked, "You hadn't told me: why is today orientation?"

"Because," and she looked a little sad, "I am well aware that I collected most of you without asking you to help. Today is when I'm going to give some of you the chance to back out. I can't give that option to Yugi, Joey, or Seto, because they have the potential of becoming extremely strong, and I need all the strength I can get."

"Figures that I don't get any option," Yugi piped up. Now he _really_ sounded gloomy.

Kaiba gritted his teeth, but he didn't say anything. He was probably remembering getting thrown against the wall.

Joey thought about that. Then he asked, "Nobody's going to miss us at school, right?"

"No. That was one of the safeguards I took while preparing to bring you here. For everyone who had something to do, I gave you a…a kind of link back to Earth, with an anchor who had strong enough powers to be used as such. That link makes a…sort of hologram that takes your places, and they will act appropriately because the link connects to your subconscious."

"That's cool!" He thought a little more, and then added, "Okay, I'm in." I think he was trying to cheer Yugi up again.

"Mai, Ishizu, Marik, Tristan, Tea, and you, Ryo, all get the option of going back home. Maximillion knows what's going on, and he actually volunteered." And she smiled at him.

"It beats being bored," he replied, smiling back.

She turned her attention onto the girls. "What do you all think?"

Tea's answer was almost immediate. "I'm not leaving Yugi and Joey. They're my friends, and besides, things wouldn't be normal without something weird going on. I was starting to get bored."

Mai thought about it a little more. "Well…you left my ride in a safe place, right?"

"Yes. It's right where you last stopped, and I set a shield around it so that nobody will see it if they go in, just as an extra safeguard."

"And since I wasn't actually going anywhere…" Mai nodded briskly. "Okay, I'm in."

Ishizu thought about it even longer. "Back when we helped the Pharaoh go on to the Afterworld, I thought we were done. I'd rather we remained done with our association with magic."

Marik nodded from where he was sitting. Somehow, though, it seemed like he was thinking of a different reason to stay out.

"Okay. I understand. I can send you home right now. Brace yourselves." And she extended her hands, one towards each of them.

Their outlines flickered a little, almost like a hologram, and then they just…disappeared!

Joey yelled. "What happened?"

Kisara shook her head. "They're fine. Well, they might feel a little weak back in Egypt, but otherwise they're all right." She looked over at Tristan and me. "What about you two?"

Tristan stated right away, "I'm staying. There's _no way_ I'm leaving Joey here unattended – you have no idea what sort of trouble he can get into!"

She smiled at him. "Yes, I do. You forget that I'm a telepath." Then she turned her full attention from him to me. "Ryo, in potential, you have the same amount as Yugi. The reason I'm giving you a choice is because of the experience you had in getting that much potential. It's your choice."

I was quiet for a long time. To be perfectly honest, I didn't remember much of the time when I was under the control of an evil spirit with my name. What I knew was what Yugi and his friends were willing to tell me – and that wasn't much. I can only imagine what I did to all of them, and none of it was pleasant. Spending the rest of my life completely normal would be no bad thing…and yet…

"For years, I've been Yugi's enemy," I said slowly. "This…is a chance to own up to everything that I've done."

"Bakura, none of that had been your fault," Tea said softly.

"Then you're in?" Kisara asked.

"Yes."

"Then it's settled!" She clapped her hands sharply once. "Mai, Tea, grab your things and follow me. I'll take you to my room so you can get dressed. I'll send some clothes to the boys as soon as I can find some in your sizes."

As the ladies left, I sat back and sighed.

"You okay?" Yugi asked.

"It's just that I thought we were done with magic."

"I did too, Bakura. But at least, this seems to be different from what we've had to deal with for years."

"Oh, will you geeks stop it?" Kaiba interrupted. "This girl is nothing but a big fake. You'll see."

Somehow, I didn't think so.

And clearly, neither did Joey. "Oh, yeah? That throw was awfully convincing."

Pegasus spoke up. "Oh, let him alone. If he wants to be a skeptic, let him. He'll see soon enough that this is real."

Yugi, Joey, and Tristan saw something funny in that, and they all laughed. I shook my head and fell onto my bed again. _At least Yugi's cheering up under the situation, and at least we won't be bored with whatever Kisara tells us to do._


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

CHAOTIA; ANYA'S ROOM; 9:30 AM

**Tea**

Mai and I watched Anya as she ran around the room, which was obviously hers, and pulled out a couple different outfits and held them up.

"Let's see…Tea, you're about the same size as me, maybe a little shorter, so…these should probably work." And she tossed a brown skirt and top at me.

Upon holding them, I could tell that they were made of a very durable cloth. I looked up at her. "So I'm going to wear this?"

"That one's one of my older outfits that hasn't worn out yet. I wore that all the time when I was…fourteen? I was shorter then."

"Oh." I went behind the curtain in her room and tried them on. _Well, at least they fit._ I pulled the curtain aside and asked, "Well, Mai? I don't look silly, do I?"

"Actually, you look tough in that!"

"Sorry I can't let you borrow a pair of my shoes," Anya apologized, "but I think I wear a larger shoe size than you do."

"No, I'm okay. I mean, if we're only going to run around on stone floors and all, I'll be okay with this."

Anya smiled at me. "Well, I can't guarantee that we'll just be on cut stone, but I'll definitely have shoes in your size by the time we leave this terrain." She walked out of the room, calling back, "That skirt has pockets, so you can carry around your deck. Just wait there, while I find some clothes for the boys."

Mai smirked. "If she chooses brown for everybody, what do you think Kaiba's going to say about it?"

"Come to think of it," I retorted, "how do you think he's going to react to being schooled?"

CLASSROOM; 9:35 AM

**Seto Kaiba**

This was nuts. I wake up in a stone room, and some girl tells me that she's going to put me back into school with no way for me to drop the course! And on top of that, she used some trickery to throw me backward into the wall!

The dweeb patrol had already resigned themselves to this situation, and Pegasus seemed to think that it was all just a big joke.

"I can't wait to see what sort of curriculum Anya's decided to pick out for us," Pegasus declared.

_I rest my case._

_**You'd better rest the issue too, Seto, because you won't be able to weasel out of this.**_

I looked around. Nobody was looking at me, and nobody seemed smug at their attempt to get a rise out of me.

_Sheesh. Somebody's trying to mess with my head again._

Then Pegasus spoke up again. "Well, it looks like Miss Maygo has supplied you with some new attire, so I will be leaving you to your wardrobe change."

Sure enough, five bundles had floated through the door, each stopping in front of one of us. Pegasus edged out the door past the bundles, and right when the door shut, walls of fog came up in the room, separating us all!

Wheeler yelped, "What _is_ this?"

_**I thought you boys might want some privacy from each other while you were getting changed. If anybody doesn't care, then I'll take those walls down.**_

"Leave them up," I said to the air, resigning myself to her telepathy, "and make them sound-proof, too."

I think Wheeler had something to say to that. I never heard it, and frankly, I didn't care.

Sitting back, I studied what I had been given. Brown pants, a matching shirt, and some leather shoes. "What do you think I am – a stable boy?"

_**No. That specific weave is the most practical thing you can have, considering that you are going to learn, whether you like it or not.**_

I sighed and shook the clothes out. As I did, something fell out: a leather belt, with a white metal buckle that looked like a dragon, and a pouch on one side.

I smirked as I picked it up. "Don't even try to make up. I haven't forgiven you for abducting me."

**Yugi Moto**

I looked at the clothes Anya had supplied me. Lots of durable brown fabric seemed to be the key. At least she'd remembered to bring my belt with my deck along from Earth.

We'd all decided to leave the privacy fog up, but keep the sound on. "Are your clothes the same as mine, Joey?" I asked.

"They are if yours are made of tough brown cloth. Do you think everybody wears these?"

Tristan answered. "Probably only the servants and students wear these, Joey. Hey, she gave me a belt for my deck!"

"She gave one to me, too!" Bakura added.

* * *

Once we were all dressed, the fog disappeared, and we could all get a good look at each other. Tristan's hairstyle made his look a little strange, but not bad, and Joey and Bakura looked great in theirs. Kaiba looked…sullen.

"Hey, why does Kaiba get a fancy belt buckle?" Joey protested.

Well, he got Kaiba to smile. I guess that's something.

Pegasus came back in, along with Tea, Mai, and Anya. "My," he said upon looking at all of us, "you all look rather good in those. I'm almost tempted to request mine be changed."

"Very funny," Kaiba retorted.

Anya clapped her hands twice. "Now, now, boys, I don't want to hear you arguing." The look she gave Kaiba kept him from protesting. "It's high time I showed you all around. You can't keep sleeping in here, so I'd better show you where the sleeping quarters are, and where everything else is. Besides, there are some places you must not go, and I'll brief you on those, too."

* * *

We spent the whole rest of the morning following Anya around the school building, figuring out where the food was prepared and served, where we were supposed to sleep, where we would get an exercise period, and where we could practice – we were going to learn how to summon monsters? She also pointed out some rooms where she said "Elders" stayed, and told us to keep our distances from them, for though all of them were her teachers, only one was friendly.

After getting lunch, she told us, "Now I've told you what you need to know about this place. I'm going to leave you all to practice your own methods of getting around. If you get lost – and since you don't know how to use the power you have, you will get lost at least once here – just tell one of the servant boys that you're with me, and ask them for help. They'll be perfectly happy to help you get where you're trying to go."

"Where will you be?" Bakura asked.

She smiled at us. "I'll be organizing your curriculum, of course." And with that, she walked off.

_**Oh,**_ she thought back to us, _**you'd better decide who gets what room right away, and put your name on the door so that nobody invades on you.**_

I nodded after her.

ANYA'S ROOM; 12:45 PM

**Anya**

Well, I had better figure out what it is that I'm trying to teach them.

_Let's see…all of them have telepathy, so I'll start with that. Beyond that – hm. I think I'll figure out how to teach them telepathy in the morning. It's generally the simplest. Now…Yugi, Joey, Seto, and Ryo have the strongest telepathy, and Maximillion has the weakest. Tristan, Tea, and Mai are right in the middle. I definitely need a system._

By the end of the day, in which I sensed that Joey and Tristan had gotten lost four times, as opposed to – wow! – Yugi's zero and everyone else's one, I'd figured out a system that I was pretty confident would work. I'll set them on it tomorrow.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

DECEMBER 5

BREAKFAST TABLE; 9:35 AM

**Yugi**

We had just collected our breakfast and sat down when Anya spoke up. "We will begin our first class now."

Joey groaned. "We haven't even started breakfast yet!"

"Don't worry," Anya grinned, "the lesson won't interfere with your eating. The first lesson will be to teach you all how to use what telepathy you have, _**and most of it,**_" she added mentally, _**will be without any of us speaking aloud. When I say something out loud, it means the class is over.**_

Joey nodded, as did the rest of us. Kaiba looked sullen, but before he could open his mouth, Anya glared at him.

I don't know what she said, but it got him to clutch his head and glare at her. I could feel his resentment from where I was sitting.

_**Very good, Seto.**_ She broadcast that to all of us for some reason. Then she went on. _**The first step in learning telepathy is learning to send your emotions to other people. For some, that is the only way they can use their telepathy. It is tricky to learn, or at least, it is tricky to translate words into emotions, and vice versa. But once you master that, everything else comes that much easier. Everything can receive everything, which is why we're working like this. And so you know, Maximillion can only learn this manner of telepathy.**_

Pegasus nodded calmly. I guess he'd decided to accept that as fact.

Joey's face tightened up all of a sudden, and I felt a wave of…excitement and pride, with curiosity thrown in.

And clearly, so did everyone else and Anya. _**Yes, Joey, you are fully capable of learning how to use a different level of telepathy, but for now just focus on speaking with emotions. I know how, so it's important you know as well. If you don't want an enemy attempting to tap your communication to know what you're saying, emotions are the best way to send.**_

Kaiba suddenly seemed a lot happier.

_**Okay, lecture time is over. Each of you, try to hold an emotional-transmission conversation with somebody at the table. I'm not expecting you to be able to keep your emotions from everybody, because I haven't taught you shielding yet. You won't be hearing much from me during this session.**_

For about ten seconds, everyone stayed completely quiet. I was beginning to wonder if everyone was waiting for someone else to start, when Joey put a bite of food in his mouth. All at once, I sensed a wave of delight so strong that I automatically started eating my own breakfast; so did Tristan, Tea, and Bakura. Another wave of delight from someone else at the table got Kaiba, Mai, and Pegasus eating their own breakfasts, but Kaiba stopped eating and glared at Joey.

_Don't take it out on Joey,_ I thought crossly. _That's what she told us to do, right? We have to learn how to broadcast our emotions; Joey just happens to like food._

The good news is that Kaiba stopped glaring at Joey. The bad news is that he started glaring at me, and I could feel his resentment from where I was sitting.

In the hopes of distracting him, I mentally shuffled my deck and "offered" it to Kaiba. _Would a psychic duel be breaking the rules?_

Kaiba was definitely surprised at my offer, but then he broadcast amusement and "shuffled" his own deck. Then we "cut" each other's decks and started the duel.

**Tea**

I couldn't decide what to broadcast: I wasn't feeling anything very strongly at the moment. I finally just decided to sit back and listen to the confusion, and sort out what everyone else was "saying" to each other.

Two people were having a psychic duel – and I was willing to bet that it was Yugi and Kaiba – and Pegasus was looking back and forth between them with a look on his face that suggested he was "watching" the "duel" with considerable amusement. Joey was having some gourmet conversation with someone else; probably Tristan.

I sighed heavily as I ate another mouthful. _I need some female friends._

_Right on, sister._

It took me a minute to realize that Mai had responded to me.

_Oh, hi. What do you want to talk about?_

_I don't care. As long as we don't open our mouths, Anya certainly won't care. Have you done this before?_ I could tell that "this" was "psychic conversations."

_No; I've done a lot of other crazy stuff, but not this._

Mai leaned forward. _Tell me more._

So I "showed" her everything that had happened to me that I could remember, trying as hard as I could to keep it comprehensive.

Then Tristan's frustrated "voice," strangely recognizable, entered the din. _Whose turn is it anyway?_

Yugi choked on a bite of breakfast with a wave of amusement that was almost an audible laugh, and Kaiba glared at Tristan while broadcasting a mix of amusement and frustration.

"Okay," Anya suddenly said, making us all jump, "I could feel that there were conversations abound, and some of you...weren't completely following the rules I set. Like, ah...Tea? I was only tracking on the links, not reading them, but you had actually managed to broadcast images."

I blushed. "Oh. Sorry about that."

"Don't worry about it. Some people never manage to grasp emotion telepathy; that's just where someone trying to learn should start. So each of you: who were you talking to, and what about?"

"Duel monsters," Yugi managed to gasp out.

Kaiba followed up with a sigh. "Yugi and I _were_ having a telepathic duel until _Tristan_ interrupted."

"And they were breaking every single rule of the game," Pegasus added smoothly. "I'm not surprised Tristan couldn't keep track."

"I was telling Mai – or, well, showing her – about all our adventures," I spoke up, still a little embarrassed about breaking the rules Anya had set.

"Yeah, I was in on the beginning of that," Tristan said, "Until the duel started getting weird."

"I was comparing gourmet menus," Joey began, but then he stopped. "I have no idea who I was talking to, though."

Bakura chortled and raised his hand, wiggling his fingers at Joey.

"Excellent." Anya looked pretty confused from the mention of Duel Monsters, though. "Now you can all do whatever you feel like doing, including practicing your psychic conversations some more. Joey, you start...trying to identify mental overtones among your friends. Ah, Maximillion? Could I speak with you in the classroom?"

**Maximillion Pegasus**

What could she want to speak with me about?

I followed her to the classroom where she had first brought the others, and we both sat down.

"Um…you realize that weak telepathy isn't your only power, right?" she asked.

"That had occurred to me, yes. So what else can I do here?"

"Actually, you always had been able to do it before. But before, it was because of an item. Here, now that your power has had a chance to grow, you can do it on your own. My teachers call it 'probing.'"

"Probing?"

"Like I keep doing to you, popping into your head and picking out random things to talk about. You can do that to other people."

I'll be able to read another person's thoughts again? "And you're going to teach me?"

"Got it in one! Now, there is no easier thing to find, so I'm just going to have you attempt to read my mind. You may have to focus a lot harder than you did with the Millennium Eye at first. I'll do the simplest thing I can think of, which is to lower my shields and think of a random number between one and ten, and you have to see what it is. Now, let us begin."

* * *

It took me two hours of concentration, and even then, I couldn't see the number. I really couldn't discover it after getting a headache.

"It's okay not to get it immediately," she reassured me, "nobody I know does it the first time they're told to try. Now come on, it's time for lunch."

* * *

**A/N: If I didn't mention this earlier, I'm sorry I hadn't included the date before. It wasn't until after I started the story that I realized time would make a difference in what I'm working on. This whole thing is taking place in the month of December.**


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

DECEMBER 7

SUPPER TABLE; 6:30 PM

**Anya**

By this point, Maximillion had gotten the basic idea of probing, and everybody was chatting happily with concepts. Yugi and Seto were in another psychic "duel," whatever that meant where they came from, and Ryo and Joey were talking about the menu.

"All right, you guys," I interrupted, "There's something that you all need to learn before you go on with your telepathy lessons, and that's shielding."

Well, I had all their attention, at least, mainly because I said that aloud. Seto looked a little unhappy, but he was listening.

"Shielding is important, because not all telepaths are friendly, and besides, once you get the hang of sending your thoughts outside your head, you need a way to keep them in, as well. For example, Seto could get Joey mad; Joey wouldn't want Seto to know he'd succeeded, so he'd use shielding to hide his emotions."

Joey nodded. "I get that."

"And of course, you'll want defense against probers, such as Maximillion."

Seto's eyebrows suddenly quirked, and he got a wry smile on his face. _Huh?_

"Watch me, and keep your mind open." I purposely dropped my own shields, knowing they wouldn't be able to see into my mind, but would be able to tell that the shields were down. Then I slowly brought my shields back up around my mind, knowing full well that what they would 'see' was a series of large bubbles forming around my thoughts.

"Your shields will be built in about the same way, but they don't have to be like mine; they will be whatever's easiest for you to make. You get five minutes to come up with shields of your own, and make sure they're built in layers to stand up to many different levels of attack. I'll be testing them with probes of ten percent, fifty percent, and one hundred percent strength once you tell me you're ready."

All eight people at the table closed their eyes and started thinking. I kept my mind to myself, so as to be surprised, and started waiting.

* * *

"Well? Who's ready?"

Yugi's hand shot up. Joey grinned cockily and raised his hand, even faster than Yugi had. Seto lifted a finger, while Mai crossed her arms and straightened up. Maximillion gave a broad shrug as Tea lifted her hand, a little slower. Tristan shrugged, and Ryo looked up apprehensively.

"Okay, Joey, since you raised your hand first, I'll test out your shield first." I closed my eyes and imagined a pebble tossed from my mind towards his, my general way of doing a test probe. This wouldn't hurt him, since I was only sending a viewing probe.

The pebble came closer and closer to his mind, and…

Bounced off the red sword of a very buff warrior. I opened one eye and looked at Joey. "That's an interesting shield choice, Joey, and not one I was expecting."

Joey grinned at me again. "The Flame Swordsman has never let me down!" That barely made sense to me, and then only because I felt that it had connection to that 'Duel Monsters' thing.

"But how will he hold up to a stronger attack?" I imagined a good-sized rock, one that would take both hands to throw, for my fifty-percent probe, and 'threw' it at Joey's mind.

The Flame Swordsman kept the rock from entering Joey's mind, but just barely. He wouldn't stand up to a stronger assault.

"I hope your Flame Swordsman isn't your only line of defense, Joey," I warned as I prepared my boulder-100%, "because he won't stand up to my final probe." With that, I launched that final probe.

It tore through the metaphorical air towards the Flame Swordsman –

And a chain popped out of nowhere and wrapped around my boulder, stopping it in its tracks!

I blinked in surprise while Joey grinned and broadcast jubilation. "All right! My hidden trap worked!"

"Well done, Joey. But you've got to remember that your shield has to keep your emotions in, as well."

He started, and then closed his eyes tightly. After about two seconds, I couldn't feel his excitement anymore, though I knew it hadn't been long enough to wear down.

"I'm not even going to ask what you're doing to keep your emotions in, Joey, because that part doesn't matter. Yugi, you're next."

Seto scowled. He didn't say anything, and I – wonder of wonders! – couldn't feel anything more than a vague discontent. Why was he unhappy?

I tossed my pebble at Yugi, along with the rock, and both bounced off the very big shield of a crouching person. "What's that one called, Yugi?"

"Big Shield Gardna. He's my best defensive Duel Monster."

_Huh?_ "Well, he'd better be ready for my final probe!" My boulder came rolling towards his mind –

And suddenly was rolling back towards me! I barely managed to stop my own probe from impacting!

Yugi looked apologetic. "Sorry, Anya, I should have – "

"There was nothing wrong with that, Yugi. You just surprised me. Surprise is the best weapon of the mind." I recovered my composure and asked, "Does that technique have a name as well?"

"Yup: Mirror Force!"

"An appropriate name."

"I might have guessed," Seto commented snidely.

"Don't be so sarcastic, Seto," I scolded, "for you're next."

Seto's shield turned out to be several layers of spinning wheels with fans on them that he said was a magic card he'd chosen to duplicate several times over. It held up all right, though my boulder probe nearly did it in. Mai's shield was not unlike Yugi's shield, in that it had to do with mirrors. My final probe shattered her mirror, but she had a dragon behind the mirror that stopped it.

Maximillion's shield was bizarre. Each probe was met with a different creature, and each creature caught my probe and outright laughed! He said they were monsters from his 'Toon World,' whatever that meant. Tea's shield was a set of heavy curtains that my probes couldn't push past, and Tristan's shield was…a bunch of fuzzballs that went down upon stopping my probe, but just kept coming back?

"You don't mind that I'm using your Kuriboh and Multiplier, do you Yugi?" he asked.

"Nope! I considered doing that myself, but then decided I liked this strategy better."

_I'll never get what they're talking about before we have to save the world!_ "Okay, Ryo, your turn."

Ryo's shield was a very sturdy box. My boulder-probe dented it, but it held up. It 'looked' like it had went through a whole lot of wear; probably a sign of how he'd survived the dark magic.

"All right, class," I declared, "you all get passing grades. You get back to your telepathy-studying, and use your new shielding to make sure that only the ones you're talking to hear your thoughts. Ryo? Can you come with me, please?"

* * *

OLD CLASSROOM; 7:05 PM

**Ryo**

I didn't know what to expect. Pegasus had been led off after breakfast to get some personalized teaching, and when he came back at lunchtime, he told us that she'd determined him to be a prober, with the same power that he'd had back when he still had the Millennium Eye. Kisara had taken him off to work with him a little more after lunch. What was she going to tell me?

"Ryo," she began, "your power is that of dousing. You can find things with your mind – no, that's not quite true. You can track things down by getting a sense of where things are that becomes stronger as you get closer to what you're looking for."

"Like my Millennium Ring?" The Ring was foremost in my mind so that she could see what I meant.

"Exactly like. Now, the way I'm going to teach you dousing is a simple game of Hot and Cold, but without my saying anything." She held up a wooden ball. "I'm going to hide this, and you have to rely on your dousing power to find out where I've hidden it." Right after she finished talking, the ball vanished from her hand!

I blinked, and then closed my eyes and focused. _A plain wooden ball, with one long mark around its middle distinguishing it from any others that might be around…_

I felt a strange tug at my mind, turning my head in the direction. "Am I doing it right?"

"Yes, keep going. You only get a passing grade if you find the ball."

Laughing a little, I started following the tug towards one side of the room. There was a writing desk over there, with a cubby below the writing surface… My hand slipped in, and I grinned wide. "I found it!" I yelled, waving the ball over my head.

"A-plus," Kisara said, laughing a little and clapping. "I'll be doing that a little more with you tomorrow, just to be sure that wasn't just beginner's luck. But if you find the item I use – I can't guarantee that it will always be that ball – nine more times, then I'll deem you an expert douser, and we'll simply keep working on your other powers."

"All right." And with that, I wandered out.

"_**Try dousing for your friends,**_" Kisara called after me telepathically, "_**I don't think they're in the usual place anymore.**_"

So I closed my eyes again and focused on finding Yugi.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

DECEMBER 9

DARK FORTRESS; 6:00 AM

_I looked down from my throne at my servant. "You're certain nobody suspects you?"_

"_Quite certain. The shields you made for my mind are impenetrable. They have no idea that a spy is in their midst. I have reached the level of Elder among them, and get more privacy than anyone."_

"_Excellent. And how are you doing in earning the girl's confidence?"_

_He hesitated. "She has started teaching on her own. She brought some children her age from another dimension and now she's teaching them how to use their powers."_

_I smirked. "She must be trying to avoid her own destiny by bringing in others. I'd say it's high time we tested her work. Don't you agree?"_

_My servant grinned, revealing long, pointed fangs. "I shall form a test for them, sir."_

"_Whenever she is alone – and I'm using the word 'alone' very loosely – strike."_

* * *

CLASSROOM; 10:35 AM

**Anya**

I walked in on my students and started laughing. Seto was baiting Maximillion, having him guess what card he was thinking of, and Joey was helping Ryo practice his dousing by hiding random cards from Ryo's deck and having him run around looking for them. Tristan was driving Tea up the wall with his density, and Mai was in a card duel with Yugi.

"I hate to interrupt this," I spoke up, "but Maximillion, you will be refining what I've taught you with Madame Celestia." I stepped aside to admit her past me.

"_**And,**_" I smirked at Maximillion, "_**you'll probably end up charming her before the end of the week.**_"

"Why, Kisara, darling, have you tired of me already?" He was kidding.

"Maximillion, darling, I could never grow tired of you," I answered, irony rolling through my voice, "but you have come to the end of what I can teach you."

Madame led Maximillion out, leaving Seto looking at me strangely.

I ignored the look and turned to look at everyone else. "Yugi, Ryo? You share a power, which I'm going to teach you today. Everyone else…_**practice speaking using images. Now that Maximillion's learning with Madame Celestia, we can progress to the next step.**_"

With that thought, I led the two out.

* * *

I took them to another classroom, and we all sat down on mats. "Your shared power, and the only other power you have, Ryo, makes you all have the title of 'shaman.'"

"Shaman?" Yugi repeated.

"You can speak with the dead."

I immediately wondered about the looks on their faces. Ryo looked almost awestruck, and Yugi looked…excited.

"Okay, now the way we'll be doing this is by meditation. Basically, you close your eyes, clear your mind and imagine your soul leaving your body, with an endless rope keeping you tethered."

With that, we all closed our eyes. I'm not sure if they started focusing right off, but I achieved it first, since I'd done it before. When I opened my eyes again, I was looking at two glowing versions of the boys still sitting down.

"_**You can open your eyes now,**_" I said, amused. "_**It won't pull you back in.**_"

Yugi's eyes popped open, and he stared around. "_**Wow!**_"

Ryo looked down at the glowing cord holding him to his body. "_**This is easier than I thought.**_" Then he looked up at me. "_**We can't…be separated from our bodies permanently like this, can we?**_"

A good question, and one I'd hoped they'd think of. "_**It can be done. It takes a certain amount of ritualistic planning, though, and in order to make the separation **_**truly**_** permanent, someone has to actually be in the same room as the meditating shamans. And I locked the door, and teleporting to a certain person is very…iffy.**_"

They looked nervous, but both nodded.

"_**Now, since these are uncertain times, and I do have enemies, we'll try to keep this visit to the world of the dead a short one. I do know the theory of getting back into one's bodies when the tether's cut, but I'm hoping that we won't have to practice it. Now…the way to visit the dead is to, first of all, have **__**someone who has died **__**in mind. You have to know the person, or at least, know the name and when they died. You do the choosing, I'll just follow.**_"

Yugi fairly glowed brighter, and he took off like a shot, his tether streaming out behind him. Ryo followed quickly after, and I chased both of them, wondering who had died that they missed so much.

Soon, we arrived in a glowing white cloud.

"_**Is this the right place?**_" Ryo asked.

"_**Yes. This is where we get to stop to meet the dead. Now all you have to do is call the name.**_"

Yugi grinned, looked out, and called, "_**ATEM!**_"

_Atem?_

_**Yugi?**_

Someone glided towards us. He looked like Yugi, but slightly taller, with darker skin, crazier yellow bangs, and fiercer eyes. And he was dressed like a great ruler of Egypt!

_Atem? _Pharaoh_ Atem?!_

"_**How did you come here, Yugi?"**_ he asked, grabbing first Yugi, then Ryo, in a hug.

"_**We're both learning how to use psychic powers! So are Joey, Tristan, Tea, Mai, Pegasus, and Kaiba!**_"

"_**Kaiba?"**_ He sounded surprised. He must have known Kaiba.

"_**I know; I have the same reaction. But he's actually getting pretty good at telepathy. The others can't come visit, because they're not shamans. Our teacher, Anya, is destined to save her world from evil, and she doesn't want to do it alone.**_"

"_**Never a dull moment, huh Yugi?"**_ he laughed.

"_**Nope!**_" And Yugi started laughing, too.

I lost track of the conversation after that. I hadn't quite recovered from the shock of the fact that Yugi knew an Egyptian pharaoh. That's my excuse for not guarding my body: I wasn't paying attention. But after about an hour of their reminiscing, I started feeling a strange…wrongness.

Now, normally, the instructor doesn't come between the student and their dead friend. But if I was feeling a wrongness…

"_**Yugi, Ryo? We need to go back. There's something wrong.**_"

Well, I could give them credit. When I said something was wrong, they didn't question me.

"_**Sorry, Pharaoh. We'd better be going, before this becomes a permanent visit,**_" Ryo apologized.

"_**I understand. Maybe when it's less dangerous you can come back."**_

I waved at him as he drifted off again, and Yugi and Ryo called out their goodbyes. I took hold of my tether and –

Felt a sharp _twang._

_That…couldn't have been right._

"_**What was that?**_" Ryo asked.

"_**I felt it, too.**_" Yugi piped up.

"_**Whatever I say, don't move.**_ …_**That was someone cutting through our tethers.**_"

Yugi and Ryo stared at me in horror, but they didn't move.

"_**The way to get back from this situation, my instructor told me, is to **_**not**_** pull on the tether, which is how we would normally get back, but rather to carefully walk back, following it without touching it.**_"

So we started carefully back, each of us keeping our eyes pinned to our own tethers.

I don't know how long it was before we came back to the classroom, but we finally made it. Now that we were back, we could all see our tethers blowing free in some strange psychic wind.

"_**All we need to do now is focus on entering our bodies. I won't do it yet; I'll make sure you each make it in properly. Once you're in, stay in meditation trance a little longer to firmly re-fix your tethers, so that you don't get lost on a second trip.**_"

I watched as first Yugi, then Ryo, focused themselves back down into their bodies. I waited a second more, then focused into my own body and re-fixed my own tether.

When I opened my eyes, I saw my students just looking at me, extremely worried.

"I'm okay, guys. Really." Then I kicked my time-sense back into gear. "Oh, wow! Lunchtime already! Let's go catch up with the others."

I was scared; that had been the first time I'd gone to the spirit world in a while, and I'd had my tether cut! But how did he get the knowledge? Clearly he was a teleport, and enough of a telepath to get a sense of where my body was. Also, he had a powerful enough friend to make the Spirit Knife! But I didn't dare show them I was scared; I didn't want to scare them away from visiting their amazing, understanding friend. I wanted them to introduce me sometime.

Hm. Maybe I'll file that one with getting them to explain Duel Monsters.

* * *

DARK FORTRESS; 12:45 PM

"_Well," I said to my servant, "you almost succeeded in eliminating her, which wouldn't have been a bad thing. But she remembered her teaching better than I thought she would. No matter. We shall simply have to attempt again._

"_Yes, sir."_

_As he left, I smiled to myself. Soon all will fear the name of __Nitupsar__!_

**A/N: Throwing a little danger in there...and a little mystery! :)**


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

DECEMBER 11; 10:00 AM

**Anya**

After two days had passed, everyone had just about mastered Level Three telepathy, and Yugi and Ryo had become pretty good at the shamanistic training I'd put them through. Thanks to that reminder, I'd altered the way I taught those two a tiny bit: now I only escorted one of them to the spirit world at a time, and left the other one awake in the room to stand guard. I wasn't going to make _that_ mistake twice!

Of course, that left me, mentally, way too exhausted to teach the others anything else yesterday. Therefore, my new curriculum was going to start today.

"Mai, Ryo?" I called to the room, "you'll be working with each other either on your telepathy, or Ryo's dousing. I know," I forestalled Mai's protest, "you're practically masters at the level of telepathy you're at, but you don't have the power I'm going to teach the others, so…"

Mai took that pretty well. She was still a tad grouchy, but she took it well.

"And in another two or three days, I'll be teaching your other power."

That _really_ cheered Mai up.

* * *

**Seto**

So with that, she escorted the geek patrol and me into our original classroom. When will I get a break from those four?

"The power I'll be teaching you today is kinesis. And for those of you who don't know," she somehow managed to look at Wheeler when she said that and wink at me at the same time, "kinesis is basically moving objects with one's mind."

"You mean we get to learn how to throw people into the walls?!" Wheeler yelled. Sheesh.

"Hm, yes… that had mostly been a rapidly-expanded personal shield, which is made with kinesis. But that's not the first thing we're going to learn about it. See, everyone has a different strength of kinesis, which determines how big an object they can lift, and how many."

"I…think I see…" Tea said slowly.

I didn't see at all, and hoped my shield was staying up.

Maybe she was answering doubt from Tea. "Let me put it this way: I can move a hundred things at once easily, and I haven't had opportunity to practice on any more than that. I can also kinetically lift up to six hundred pounds easily."

"How'd you find that out?" Tristan asked.

"Simple," and she smirked, "one of my teachers weighs that much, at least!"

I couldn't help it; I laughed.

"What we'll be doing," she went on, after grinning at me, "is practicing lifting simple Duel Monsters cards."

I jumped as a card slipped from out of my deck, and two each from Yugi's and Wheeler's decks, and drifted over to her.

She caught them all easily and spun them around so that we could see them, keeping them flat on her two palms. I didn't see what she'd removed from Yugi's deck, or from Wheeler's. By some luck of the draw, she'd managed to pull one of my Blue-Eyes White Dragons!

"Now, can any of you take one of these cards from my hands without using your own?"

I glared at the cards. This was impossible!

Tristan asked, "Is there some kind of trick, like you holding onto them with your own mind?"

Her answer shocked me. "Only a light cover on them so that you don't accidentally set them on fire."

_We can set things on fire?_

Yugi looked at her for a second. Then he closed his eyes and started taking deep breaths. One hand went up –

And one of his cards floated up from her hand! I blinked, and looked carefully at it.

The Dark Magician. What else would it be?

"Great job, Yugi! Anyone else feel like trying?" she asked.

Tristan and Tea both managed to pick up a card. Wheeler was still struggling, though. Her shield over his Flame Swordsman was steaming.

"Calm down, Joey," she spoke up, "that's what's making my shield fight off the ignite-reaction. Aren't you going to try, Seto?"

"I didn't give you permission to call me by my first name," I said sullenly. Actually, since she was my self-appointed teacher, I didn't really have any control over what she called me.

"Fine. I'll call you 'Hotshot.' Just move the card already."

Was she kidding? I hope she was kidding. _Seto_ was preferable!

_Calm down, calm down…_

I took a couple of deep breaths with my eyes closed. Then I held out my hand, palm up, and imagined the card slowly floating up and to my hand.

I kept that up for about ten seconds, and suddenly the door opened behind me. My eyes opened again, and the card fell to the floor. _Hey, I almost had it back!_ I thought crossly. _Who distracted me?_

Anya looked as cross as I felt. "Master Otieno, don't you know how to identify when someone's using a classroom? No psi _can't_ detect minds, after all."

I turned around. There was a man who looked almost like a slightly older version of Siegfried von Schroeder, except his hair was black with four visible white streaks, and of course his outfit was more like what Anya was wearing.

"I came to see how your students were doing," he said, in a non-accented version of Siegfried's voice. "After all, it hasn't been that long since you were a student of mine."

"Your area of expertise _is_ kinesis, I'll give you that," she said, noncommittally.

He looked at Wheeler, who had ignored the newcomer and was still trying to move his Flame Swordsman. "Young man?"

Kudos to him, he got Wheeler to jump. "Huh?"

"If you use your hand as a guide for your power, you'll accomplish the motion faster. You need to practice more before you can move objects without pointing at them."

"Oh." He pointed at the card and tried again. The card jumped off her hand, zoomed towards Wheeler like a ninja star –

And stopped just in front of his face.

"Slowly first," Otieno laughed, his hand upraised. "You don't want to impale yourself with something that belongs to you!"

"O-oh yeah?" Wheeler answered shakily. "I-I'll remember that." He took the card from the air and put it back into his deck.

I rolled my eyes – the monkey had nearly killed himself! – and pointed at the Blue-Eyes on the floor. It glided smoothly up into my hand.

"Oh, excellent, sir!" he congratulated me, "the last young student I've seen move something so smoothly on their first try was Kisara here!"

_Really?_

Anya chose to stare at her shoes. She wasn't blushing, though, so apparently she didn't like this person. Neither did I.

"Did you show them your hundred-item trick?" Otieno asked her.

"No. I didn't want any of them to think I was showing off."

"Hundred-item trick?" Wheeler asked, his interest caught.

Yugi, Tristan and Tea also looked interested. I didn't want to admit it, but I wanted to see this myself.

Anya sighed. "Oh, all right. You'll all have to let me borrow some cards from your decks."

Yugi and Wheeler both offered their decks right away. I sighed and held up my deck as well.

One by one, the cards slid first off of Yugi's hand, then Wheeler's, and finally mine. They spun around her, up and over her in a sort of rainbow, and then behind her into the shape of…wings? They even flapped once, and the cards were still moving in a consistent line! How much focus was that taking?

"Oooh!" Tea gasped, "_I_ want to do that!"

I didn't want to admit it in front of Wheeler, but I was impressed, too.

The cards separated into three decks again and floated back to us. They each stopped about halfway, though.

"If you treat all the cards as one item," she said, "you can take these with your minds."

I pointed up at my deck and focused, and sure enough, it came floating over to my hand. I didn't take it, though: I pointed it into the holster on my belt.

Yugi tried the same thing I did, and succeeded. Wheeler tried and the cards ended up on the floor. He did manage to pick them all up and put them into his holster with his mind, though.

"Anyway, I want you all to keep practicing until you figure out your limits, within the limits of how I'm teaching you. Meaning you can practice lifting yourselves. Lifting each other is an option you can attempt once you can move objects and yourselves with proficiency. That, of course, will depend on if you trust each other."

Yugi and his dweeby friends just looked at each other with that _look_. I rolled my eyes.

"Are we done?"

"Yes, Seto, we're done. For now, anyway. We'll keep practicing these powers all day."

_Aagh! When will she decide we're _done_?!_

* * *

DARK FORTRESS; 6:00 PM

**Otieno**

I bowed before my master.

"What have you learned about the girl and her students?"

"I have learned that the students I have seen are progressing at a rapid pace. One of them learns slower than the others, one picks things up first, and one is skeptical of everything he's learning. The other two attempt whatever the fastest one tries. And," I couldn't keep a smile from my face, "I believe my former student is in love with her most skeptical student."

"Really? This could prove interesting. Continue to observe. For now."

"Yes, master."


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

DECEMBER 19; 10:00 AM

_**Anya**_

Well, now I knew the range of each of my kinesis students. Tristan could lift up to twenty things at once, and he couldn't lift himself or Tea. I'd already explained to them that lifting themselves meant they could lift something heavier than themselves easily. Tea could move thirty-five things at once, but lifting herself was out of the question. She _could_ lift Ryo, though. Joey could lift himself, though the first time he tried sent him into the ceiling, and he could move his entire deck, however many that constitutes. Yugi could pretend to fly, and he could lift Joey and move all the cards in his deck (and Joey's deck) at once! Seto…wouldn't practice. Or, well, he _would_ – he'd throw Joey into the wall whenever he wanted him to shut up. But that doesn't count as lifting anything. I finally made him practice yesterday, and he proved he could move his whole deck, and redecorate his room, complete with moving his bed to a different wall.

All at the same time.

Anyway, yesterday was also when I got Yugi, Joey, Seto and Ryo on their top level of telepathy, and they'd taken to it with relief.

Today, I told them, "We'll be studying how to summon monsters. Only Yugi, Joey, Mai, and Seto have this particular power. We'll be studying this in the arena in half an hour. Everyone else, continue practicing your other powers."

Seto looked very happy with that news.

* * *

ARENA; 10:35 AM

I was standing almost in the center of the arena with Yugi and Seto in front of me. Joey and Mai were both late.

"Can't we just start without them?" Seto asked, sounding extremely annoyed.

"I'd rather not repeat myself in explanations. Besides, calling them is simple enough," I answered, closing my eyes and throwing my mind into finding them.

I found their auras. _Oh, good. They're together. __**Joey? Mai?**_ I asked, gently tapping against their minds.

_Passion. Raw, wild, unbridled passion. Good lord, what were they _doing_ during _allotted class time?!

_**Um, guys? I hate to interrupt, but you need to be at the arena five minutes ago.**_

_Panic from Joey, and a sense of rushing. Whew. At least they were coming._

I opened my eyes. "They're coming."

"What's the matter?" Yugi asked. "Your face is all red."

"It's nothing." I fought to get my body back under control.

Then the culprits came dashing in. "Made it!" Joey yelled as he fell on Yugi.

"I ought to give you both detention," I said, my voice going cold. "The only reason I'm not is because you actually managed to pass a test that you yourselves set."

"Great," Mai said, although the look in her eyes betrayed that she didn't know what I was talking about.

"_**Your little game in that room. I had no idea you were doing **_**that,**_** and passion is the hardest emotion to keep behind shields.**_" I kept Yugi and Seto from hearing that. There are things that need to be kept private.

"Oh." Both had the good grace to blush.

"Now if we can get to the lesson? Ah…" I thought. How to explain the monster-summoning process? They were used to their _own_ way. And in that might lie the answer.

I stormed over to Yugi and set my hand squarely on his head. "Yugi, give me a crash course in Duel Monsters summoning."

"Kaiba's the one to ask," he protested, "_he_ made the equipment."

"I'm interested in the _rules_, Yugi."

"Oh." Yugi thought a moment, and then sent a volley of images and concepts into my head. _There are two different types of monster summons: normal summons and special summons. One normal summons can be done per turn and just consists of placing the monster card in question on the field, although anything higher than level 4 needs tributes. Special summons requires magic cards, and some monsters can only be summoned by a special summons. Those monsters are fusion monsters – which require the Polymerization magic card and the monsters needed to build them – and ritual monsters, which need specific ritual magic cards and usually require some form of tribute._

I took my hand off Yugi's head and stepped back. "Okay, first of all, ritual-summon monsters really _do_ need a ritual here."

Yugi nodded as if he expected nothing less.

"Second, I won't be covering fusion or special summon monsters in this class."

Yugi hesitated for a moment, and then he nodded again.

"We'll specifically be covering normal summon monsters. And I'll tell you right now, you people have an advantage over me in this situation. You have cards that display names."

"You mean you don't?" Mai sounded incredulous.

"No, we don't. The game of Duel Monsters doesn't exist here."

"_What_?!" Joey and Seto actually spoke at the same time. Then they promptly turned their backs on each other.

"But this is beside the point," I interrupted. "The point is that all you need in order to summon monsters is the right level of focus, the right amount of personal strength, and the name of the monster. There are any number of cheats to get around the power issue, but the important thing is – when you're summoning a really _strong_ monster, or any monster for that matter – to have enough mental strength to where the monster won't turn on you. To start, we'll be summoning low-level monsters. The way to summon such a monster is to focus and say the name. Higher-level monsters require a tribute of a higher amount of strength or another monster, they don't usually stay around for as long, and the wizard often runs into the little problem of controlling it. And Seto," I glanced at him, "dragons are generally not a wise choice for beginners to attempt summoning."

He…sulked. I guess he wanted to summon his precious Blue-Eyes White Dragon.

Joey sulked, too. "Aw _man_! I wanted to summon my Red-Eyes!"

Yugi closed his eyes. For a second, I thought he was having a headache. Then suddenly, with a pop and a trill, a ball of brown fur with little claw hands and feet and enormous green eyes appeared in front of him! It looked behind it, and with another, happy trill, glided up and rubbed against his head.

"Hey!" he laughed, "Kuriboh, cut that out!"

"Oh yeah," I added, completely deadpan, "did I mention that in this world, summoned monsters are real?"

Seto looked stunned.

About that time, Kuriboh noticed that there were other people in the room. He trilled again, and glided over to each of my students in turn to say hello.

Joey's only reaction was to pat its…head. "Hey there, little guy!"

Mai just smiled, and Seto glared at it.

Then Kuriboh glided quickly over to me and swished through my hair. I couldn't help but smile. "Never seen someone like _me_ before, have you?"

"Can we get on with the lesson, please?" Seto sounded grumpy.

"Certainly, my lord," I said sarcastically, bowing to him, as Kuriboh rushed back over to Yugi and bumped into his chest. I think it was hugging him. "Joey, do you have a monster with a low enough level to summon safely?"

Joey pulled out his deck and flipped through it. "Ah…oh. Um…I don't know."

"What's your problem?" I made his cards glide out of his hand and fan out, the pictures facing me.

"I'm not sure which one I should pick. I mean, my weakest low-level monster's a dragon."

I quickly located it and spun it around again so he could see it. "This one?"

"Yeah."

I gave his deck back and caught that card myself. It was a picture of an orange baby dragon. "Well, I said generally. For a baby like this, though, you could summon it safely. It's more that _adult_ dragons are generally too fierce for beginners to control. If you want to, you can," I finished, sending the card back over to him.

"Okay." He held up the card and said aloud, "Baby Dragon!"

With an audible pop, the little dragonet appeared in front of him. Then it looked over its shoulder at him, squeaked happily, and ran over to bump its head against Joey's stomach.

"Hey, watch it!" Joey laughed as he nearly fell over.

"I think this game of yours gives you more of an advantage than I'd originally thought," I commented.

"What do you mean?" Yugi asked, and Kuriboh agreed with a questioning trill as he let go of Yugi to look at me.

"I think the monsters you're summoning are always tied to their respective cards, and they always know who summons them. The more often an individual summons them, the more they trust the person. And if a monster _trusts_ the person who's summoning them, then it takes less energy for them to summon the monster in question, and less control is needed for them to obey commands."

"Is _that_ why I didn't need to say Kuriboh's name?" Yugi asked, rubbing the fuzzball. The little thing enjoyed that as much as any cat would.

"Hm, yes…though everyone_ I_ know needs to say the name to summon the monster. _I_ don't, but…that's beside the point. Mai? Do you have a low-level monster?" _Drat! Would I stop getting sidetracked already?!_

"Sure!" She flourished a card and announced, "Harpy Lady!"

"I _knew_ it!" Joey yelled as a wild woman with bird talons and wings appeared.

"Hey, sister," Mai said as the lady turned around.

She studied Mai for a minute. Then she made a sweeping bow to her.

"Okay, humor me:" I asked with a grin, "What's so special about this one?"

"Harpy Lady's her trademark monster!" Joey told me, grinning almost as big as _I_ was.

"Anyway," I looked at Seto, "do you have a low-level monster to summon?"

He pulled a card from his deck and showed it to me. It looked like a very weird jester with a scheming eye.

"Keep an 'I'm-the-boss' attitude with that one, Seto. He's a trickster, which means he'll always be looking for some way to take your pride down a notch. Oh, he'll come when you summon him, all right; but without your mental assertion of being his master, he'll attack you for sure."

"I don't think you need to tell _him_ that," Joey muttered from his side of the arena. "If there's _one_ thing you don't need to tell _him_ how to do, it's how to be a boss."

Seto smirked at him and said aloud, "Saagi the Dark Clown!"

The dopey thing appeared in front of him and turned around. All Seto did was cock an eyebrow at it and the clown took a hop backwards and bowed. It kept its eyes on him, though.

Joey left off stroking the Baby Dragon's head to ask, "What if we want to summon more than one monster? What do we do then?"

I used some fine kinesis to make my hair glide up and point at a table against one wall of the arena with a box on it. "In that box is a bunch of magical medallions that are used to give the wearer enough energy to summon multiple monsters. If you want to be able to summon a high-level monster along with more than one lower-level monster, then…" I dropped my hair again and focused for a second, holding my hands in front of me. Technically, I couldn't teleport what I wanted to show them. But what I could do…

A hole appeared in space in front of me, and I reached through, picked up a pocket-sized statue of a phoenix, and pulled it to me, closing the hole as I did.

Mai suddenly said, "Hey, _I_ remember _that_…"

I grinned at her. "Yeah, it was in my room. This is actually my strongest monster and my closest friend. As a final test, a learning wizard focuses his or her energy, and it condenses into a model of the wizard's…I suppose 'spirit monster' is the closest name."

Yugi and Joey's heads jerked up as though on strings; apparently, they'd heard of spirit monsters before. Mai looked semi-interested, and Seto…well, he was paying attention. I'll call that progress.

"This is a very strong monster, the very strongest monster you can summon, and it doesn't require a tribute of strength or another monster, because technically you've already paid tribute for every time you'd ever summon it in the making of the statue."

"So this is like a special summon?" Yugi asked.

_Damn_, that kid's sharp! "Yeah. And another thing? This spirit monster basically only exists in one's own soul, so the wizard instinctively knows its name." I held up the statue and announced, "Houou the Rainbow Skylark!"

I felt the power surge through the statue and through me, and Houou formed behind me with a graceful spread of wings.

My students' reactions were priceless: everyone's jaws fell about a foot each, and even the _monsters_ looked stunned!

"Pretty sweet, huh?" I grinned at them.

Amazingly, _Seto_ got his voice back first, and he didn't sound sarcastic! "Houou has your eyes!"

"Really? I never noticed. It doesn't surprise me though, since she's my spirit monster. Just to warn you all, your spirit monster might not be any monster from your card game. And, it instinctively knows if it's in danger of being destroyed, so it retreats back into the statue to avoid that. It can take any number of hits before that point, though. In a sense, its attack and defense points are off all of your charts."

Houou looked around at all of them, studying them. Thanks to my link with her, she knew that this wasn't a fight; I was just displaying her for educational purposes. I could almost see her smirk. Don't ask how she could smirk with a beak; she just _can_, I've seen her do it.

"We won't be forming your statues until a later class, or sooner if the darkness doesn't give us leisure time. I'll warn all of you, forming the statue takes all your energy, so making it before an emergency cuts off all other activity for at least a day," I added as Houou faded down to a glowing ball and flew back into the statue.

They recovered from the shock, and then I instructed them for a little longer in sending their summoned monsters back to their world, and summoning them again, until they were all exhausted.

I was a little worried while they were leaving, though. I'd felt Otieno's presence at the door to the arena, and he didn't have any business being here. Why was he so interested in my teaching?

Or did I already know somehow?

* * *

SETO'S ROOM; 1:20 PM

_**Seto**_

I escaped as soon as I could after lunch. I just couldn't stand to be around them anymore. And besides, I really couldn't stand to even _look_ at Anya.

Not that she was terrible to look at, but she dragged me away from my company and away from Mokuba when Christmas was nearly right on top of all of us!

Then I heard a strange sound behind me, followed by Anya's voice. "All right, what's the problem?"

I looked over my shoulder, not daring to credit what I'd heard. Sure enough, there she was, standing just in front of the door! But I'd _locked_ the door!

"How'd you get in here?" I asked.

"That's classified," she answered, walking over and sitting on the end of my bed. We both sat there for about a minute, just looking at each other. Then she sighed. "Compromise. _I_ tell you how I got in here, and _you_ tell me what the problem is."

I thought about that. Then I nodded. "You first."

A wry smile quirked up at the corner of her mouth. "You do realize that the right amount of focus from a kinetic can allow a person to shift their molecules right through solid objects, right?"

I stared at her. _She'd walked through a closed door? Literally _through_ it?_

"Now it's your turn. What's. Bothering. You?"

I sighed. "Why should I tell the girl who'd abducted me?"

Anya took me literally and answered, ticking off on her fingers, "Because I asked, because I'm your teacher, and because you're radiating annoyance and irritation so bad, I bet your brother can feel you from along the link I strengthened."

"Mokuba can feel my emotions?" I asked before I could stop myself.

"Yeah. I didn't do anything to cause that. It's the one power that you have that nobody else has, and that I can't teach you: you can draw strength from your brother, and give strength right back. Emotions can also be transmitted along that line, and it's a two-way street."

_I can do something nobody else can? That's…gratifying._

"Now, I've got to ask: what's wrong between you and Yugi?"

I scowled. "It's complicated."

She cocked her head, her brows pulled down. "Fine, don't tell me." Then she set her hand against my forehead. "_Show_ me."

I already knew that physical contact made sending a message easier. The comparison she'd made – after pulling the example from Tea's mind – was that non-contact telepathy was like talking on a phone, and contact put the two people in the same room, which meant that there was much more subtext.

So, I took advantage of the fact that she was asking for something without words. I closed my eyes, focused, and…

_Yugi, with a blinking sign above him that read "King of Games", and me glaring at the sign; me, challenging Yugi time and again to duels, and never winning; the total frustration that went with those losses. Then, topping it off, learning that there were_ two _Yugis, and the one who kept defeating me left for the afterlife before _I _could defeat_ him_._

"Oh," Anya said, pulling her hand away and looking at me with something in her face that I couldn't read. "Has it occurred to you that you don't want that title?"

"What?" I glared at her. "Of course I want it! He stole it from me!"

"Really? Let me put it this way: you are, in your world, the equivalent of a lord, with all the power and responsibility that goes with it."

Well. I liked the sound of _that_.

"This 'King of Games' title goes with a sport, and it also makes the owner a target for every hotshot duelist who wants the title for himself."

I interrupted her. "So they can make an appointment and get in line. Yugi doesn't know how to handle the hotshots anyway – I'd be doing him a favor to take the title from him."

Anya cocked an eyebrow. I _hated_ it when she did that, it meant she was going to bring up something I hadn't thought of as being important. "I thought you hated Yugi."

"I _don't_ hate…" my voice trailed off as what I was saying penetrated. I really _didn't_ hate Yugi: I'd turned him into my whipping boy because the person I _did_ hate wasn't in my reach anymore. In fact, I was no longer sure I even hated _him_.

Anya grimaced, too. "I sounded like one of my teachers just then, didn't I?"

I laughed, a little.

She grinned, briefly touched my hand, and stood up. "I'll let you alone now. Just…try not to exile yourself from your kinesis practice again, okay?"

I glared at her and focused. The door opened behind her, she lifted off the floor and moved outside, and the door closed – all from my own power.

"_**Did I say you could use me?**_" she said into my head. But there was an after-touch of amusement, so I ignored it.

About five minutes later, it hit me: I was in love with her!

How was I supposed to tell her that?

* * *

DARK FORTRESS; 7:09 PM

_**Nitupsar**_

Otieno looked up at me. "I have observed. Anya has started teaching her students how to summon monsters. They're learning even quicker than when she was teaching them kinesis. She'll have them summoning very powerful monsters in no time."

"This will not do. But killing her is completely out of the question right now, seeing as she is always alert." I sat quietly for a while, thinking. Then a smirk spread over my face. "Capture her. I have enough power to create a prison that will keep her where I want her to stay."

He smirked back. "And once she's out of the way, sir?"

"Then we shall start planning our attack. I might even drain her strength while she's our guest." I laughed aloud. "That should give me the strength to outright _destroy_ all those pesky psis! Then _nothing_ can stand in my way!"


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

DECEMBER 20; 9:07 AM

_**Anya**_

_Houou the Rainbow Skylark landed within my dreams, after a wonderful flight with a large dragon that had Seto's eyes. This had been the pattern of all my dreams since bringing him here. This time, though, the dragon actually named her; now, of course, he knew who she was, and he proved to me that we were sharing dreams._

_And, as with all my dreams with Houou in them, when she fell asleep, I woke up._

I woke up slowly, analyzing my personal shield's memory. _Let's see…Otieno made repeated sexual attempts at about eleven, that my shield repelled. Sheesh – I should report him. Or turn him into a toad and drop him down a snake hole myself._

"Has anyone told you that you are quite alluring in a nightgown?" Otieno's voice slid over to me.

That woke me up, and I fell out of bed onto the curved surface of a…bubble? Jumping up, I looked around. My bed and I were inside a gigantic bubble, and certainly not in my room anymore! I was in a dungeon, with the only light coming from a torch. And sure enough, there was the snake himself, in the doorway and grinning at my disorientation with fangs.

_So. He was a vampire. Why aren't I surprised?_

"_**You!**_" I yelled, both mentally, and physically. "_**You did this to me?!**_"

"Much as I'd love to take the credit," he answered, bowing, "my master constructed your, ah, new bedchamber. And, don't even try to escape," he added, "for my master certainly won't like it if you did. You won't like him if he's angry."

That just set me off even worse. I didn't try to escape with my powers, for landing on the surface had told me that using my powers to try to manipulate it or leave it would just drain my energy. Instead, I pounded my fists on the surface and yelled at him with my voice and mind, every nasty thing I could think of, as he laughed and left. I actually didn't particularly care if he heard me or not; I was simply giving my students something to find.

Now I was really glad I had chosen a different statue to channel Houou through, as opposed to my actual one. If he had me, he'd probably also chosen to take the statue he'd seen me with. As long as my students found it before he went back to double-check my room for the real one, they'd have all the instruction they'd need.

* * *

DINING HALL; 10:24 AM

_**Seto**_

Pegasus was eating with us today. Apparently, Anya's old teacher had finished teaching him everything she could. What was odd was that _Anya_ wasn't here. Mai had gone to check on her.

She soon came back, carrying what looked like a ball with lines carved in it. "Anya wasn't in her room. Neither was the statue, or her bed."

"Her _bed_?" Wheeler repeated. "Why would she move her bed?"

Yugi looked like he was thinking about something. Then he looked at Pegasus. "Do you think you can find her?"

"That's what I've been learning, Yugi boy," he answered smugly. Then he closed his eye.

It opened again really fast. "My word!"

"What?" "Whatcha see?" "Where is she?" Tristan, Wheeler, and Tea asked those questions, respectively.

"Well, the bad news is, she's in a dungeon, within a very pretty soap bubble that she evidently can't teleport out of." He looked like he was going to laugh.

"She's been captured?" I yelled, starting out of my chair.

"Why do you care?" Wheeler asked, giving me a strange look.

I hesitated. Then I decided that they were all my friends, whether I'd agreed to it or not, and sighed. "She's bossy, she thinks too highly of her own delusions, she knows almost nothing about Duel Monsters, is computer-illiterate and can't fight her way out of a soap bubble." I looked at Tea and finished with a question. "So could somebody tell me why I'm in love with her?"

Well, everybody else reacted brilliantly. Bakura actually fell out of his chair. So did Wheeler, laughing like an idiot. Tristan, Tea, Yugi and Mai all had their mouths open. Most shields were down enough for me to get a sense of what they were thinking: "YOU??? In _love_?" Sheesh – what did they think I was: a cold-blooded monster?

Actually, considering my attitude for years, that was probably _exactly_ what they'd thought.

Pegasus chose to be annoying right then. "Ah, _se ll'amour_. There's no logic to it at all."

"Shut up!" I snapped.

"Don't you want to hear the _good_ news?"

"There's good news about our teacher being kidnapped?" Wheeler asked.

"Well…" Then he started laughing. "I can't say it! Just…_look_, all right?"

I narrowed my eyes. What couldn't he say? Finally, I just closed my eyes and _looked._

_**OTIENO, YOU BAT-HEADED SNAKE!!! WHEN I GET OUT OF HERE, I'M GOING TO KILL YOU TWICE AND THEN TURN YOU INTO A TOAD AND FEED YOU TO YOUR PARENTS! YOU DON'T EVEN DESERVE TO BE CALLED A PSI – YOU'RE A TRAITOR TO YOUR KIND! I'D CALL YOU A MONSTER, BUT THAT'S AN INSULT TO SETO'S CARDS!!!**_

I recoiled, stunned.

Pegasus asked, still laughing, "Pungent, isn't she?"

Joey was starting to laugh a little, too.

Yugi commented, still staring straight ahead in shock, "Well…Anya _did_ say that it was easier to get an angry victim to cooperate with their rescuer. So that _is_ good news. But how do we use it?"

Tea suddenly looked at Mai. "Hey, what's that you've got?"

"Huh? Oh." She set it down on the table. There was slight energy sheen over it. And now that I was looking at it, I saw that the lines weren't random: they were carved to give the ball the appearance of a bird with its wings curved around it and its head bent down.

Suddenly, I had a suspicion about it. "Houou?"

The eyes on its head turned blue, and the bird surged free of its home – its real home. And it was mad.

_**Yugi**_

I yelled up, "Houou! Calm down!"

She turned to me…and calmed down. A little, anyway; she calmed down more when Kaiba called to her. Considering Anya had specifically mentioned _Seto's_ cards, that didn't surprise me.

"Now," I said, "we need a plan to go rescue her."

"Ah…how are we going to do that?" Tristan asked. "We don't know where she is, and we don't have any way of getting there."

Bakura slowly raised his hand. "I could probably guide our way there. It's simply dousing for her, just like Pegasus was able to see her."

Joey grinned. "And we can summon monsters to fly there! After all," he reached up and patted Houou's shoulder, "the monsters we summon here are real!"

Kaiba rolled his eyes. "Wheeler, did you leave your brain somewhere? We can only summon _weak_ monsters right now!"

"Well…"I said, "we could make our spirit statues. That would give us powerful monsters that would have enough endurance to get us all the way there, with enough energy left over to summon all the monsters we need. And there are those medallions Anya showed us, too."

Mai spoke up. "We don't know how to make those statues."

Then Kaiba corrected her, his voice as gentle as if he was talking to Mokuba…or at least, as close to gentle as he ever gets even when he _is_ talking to his brother. "I'd bet my Blue-Eyes that Houou does. She's a spirit monster herself, and she's Anya's. She can tell us."

Houou looked at him. Then she curved her neck so that she was eye level with him, and her eyes glowed.

His eyes started glowing a little, for about ten seconds. Then the light went out – toned down, in Houou's case – and Kaiba staggered backwards.

While he recovered, Houou went back into her statue.

Kaiba then reached over and grabbed Mai's hand and mine. "Get Wheeler ready. I'm sending you the information."

I barely had enough time to grab Joey's hand and set up the information link before concepts poured through my head, and by proxy, through his.

_It's a method of kinesis__;__ one that automatically locks out any outside strength, for the creator needs to be the only one giving strength to this action. Mai will have some difficulty with this – as she isn't actually kinetic – but she can do it once. You focus on the molecules in the air, focus on bringing them together, and ask within yourself for your spirit monster to help. Then, when you feel this tension-charged energy come to a climax, which will take all your strength, speak the first name to come into your head. This name is your spirit monster's name, will synthesize the molecules into a compact form of the spirit's form and place it within. Afterwards, most people lose consciousness. Anya didn't, but she was definitely worn out._

I opened my eyes. "Come on, you three," I said, "let's go to the first classroom."

* * *

CLASSROOM; 11:10 AM

I moved a table into the middle of our circle. "Let's all focus together. That way," I smiled at Kaiba, "we won't see each other faint."

He grinned sourly at that.

Then there was no time for jokes. We all extended our hands over the table, in front of us, and closed our eyes.

_It was all I could do to keep from trying to check on Joey. After a while, though, I realized I couldn't focus on anything except bringing those molecules together. It was like some kind of song, with a presence that didn't have a name singing with me. Then, right on the climax of the song, I felt myself speak, and heard three other voices speaking as well._

"_**Horus the Lightning Magician!**_"

"_**Hotaru the Volcano Dragon!**_"

"_**Solana the Sky Griffin!**_"

"_**Morpheus the Dragon of the Heavens!**_"

Then all the energy just…came together, and I collapsed onto the floor on my back. I vaguely heard everyone else fall, too.

_I wonder why I'm still awake._ Then I remembered that there was still something to do. I didn't have the energy for it, though. Hey…why not do that? My voice a bare whisper, I called, "_**Atem.**_"

A light appeared next to me, which shaped into my old partner. He looked very amused. _What are you doing on the floor?_

"You already know why. Could you help me? There's still something to do."

_Getting everyone into their beds?_ At my nod, he answered; _I suppose I have a little time._

I laughed a little, and let him take over.

_**Atem**_

I opened my eyes, and sat up; this was slightly difficult, because I was very tired. Now, I'm aware that it's Yugi's body I'm in, and not my own, but I choose to call it mine for the sake of convenience. Looking left and right, I saw Kaiba and Mai, both lying on the floor unconscious. Joey was no doubt on the other side of the table, in the same state.

Slowly, I stood up. I strongly doubted that I could use Yugi's kinesis, even if he hadn't just used up all his power for today in making Horus's statue. There _was_ something I _could_ do, though.

I opened the door and called. "Tristan! Tea!"

After about two minutes, they came in, with Pegasus and Bakura trailing along. Tea had to give me a second look. "Atem?"

Nodding at her, I waved at the three prone duelists. "They need to be taken back to their rooms. Yugi doesn't have the energy to move them in any way, so…"

They took the hint. Tristan and Tea glared at Joey, and slowly, Joey lifted off the floor. Bakura stepped forwards and helped me pick up Mai, while Pegasus slung Kaiba over his shoulder. Ah...nobody had better tell Kaiba just how he got back to his room.

Then I glanced at the statues. "Who's going to get them?"

Tea edged back over to the table and picked up two statues, still glaring at Joey. Once she moved back to her place, Tristan edged to the table and picked up the other two.

"Tea, you've got Joey's dragon. Tristan, you've got Kaiba's. Make sure the right statues make it to the right rooms."

We let Tristan and Tea drop off their load first. Then they came back out, Tea minus a dragon-carved ball, and I passed off Mai's arm to Tea. "Come on, Pegasus, Tristan," I said heavily, "let's get Kaiba and his dragon back to his room." I took Yugi's spirit statue – which looked vaguely like a human, curled up – back from Tristan.

I didn't actually go with them to Kaiba's room. Instead, I started towards Yugi's room. I intercepted Tea and Bakura on the way, who had just dropped off Mai and her griffin.

"You're not leaving, are you?" she asked.

"I need to put Yugi to bed, he's exhausted. But I don't have to go straight back to the spirit world. I can simply possess Bakura if you want me to stay and talk."

Tea looked very happy with that. Bakura merely pointed at himself and looked uneasy.

I could understand why. For years, he'd been possessed by a spirit that was closer in Anya's definition to a demon. But he knew me, and knew I wouldn't hurt him. I took my time going back to Yugi's room, to give poor Bakura time to think that over and get used to it.

I set the statue down on his nightstand, lay down, and left his body. "Pleasant dreams, _aibou_," I said softly, as I glided back out the door.

* * *

**A/N: Atem's conversation's not important to the plot; he's merely catching up on old times with Tristan and Tea.**


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

* * *

DECEMBER 21; 11:20 AM

_**Ryo**_

I slipped into Joey's room, carrying a plate of food that I was planning on using to bribe him awake. "Joey, you need to wake up now!"

Joey groaned at first, pulling the blanket over his head. Then he uncovered his head again, sniffing. "Breakfast in bed?"

"You can eat first, but then I need you to wake up Mai. I'll be busy trying to wake up Kaiba."

"Wha, lazybones isn't awake yet? What time is it?"

"Almost eleven-thirty. The Pharaoh told me to let you sleep."

"When did _he_ show up?"

I smiled. "You were unconscious." Then I stared at his plate; where did all that food go? He was as fast as I was! "Now anyway," I disregarded that question as unimportant, "you have to wake Mai."

"How's Yugi?" he asked as he got up.

"The Pharaoh told me to let him sleep a little longer than you. I plan to wake him up in time for lunch."

Joey grinned foolishly at me.

"Mai…" I reminded him with a smile.

"Right! Going!" And with that, he ran out the door.

I sighed and went to Kaiba's room.

He still looked asleep, with a frown on his face. What was he dreaming about?

"Kaiba, it's time to wake up." I carefully shook his shoulder. I mean, let's face it, Kaiba's a more powerful psi than I am. I don't want him to get mad at me.

He rolled over. "_**Go away.**_"

_Well, if he can use telepathy, then he's definitely awake._ I tried again. "Kaiba, what about our plans for today?"

He had evidently decided to ignore me.

After trying for about five minutes, Joey came in to see me. "Didn't you get him to move yet?"

I glared at him. "I thought you were going to wake up Mai."

"I did. Need some help?"

I sighed and stepped back.

Joey stepped up to the bed and looked like he was considering the situation. Then he leaned over. "_Kai_-ba…today was when we were going to rescue your _girl_-friend, remember?"

Suddenly, Joey went flying backwards into the wall!

Looking back, I saw that Kaiba had rolled onto his side facing us, and was glaring at Joey. "She's not my girlfriend, Wheeler."

Wincing from the impact, Joey retorted, "You don't deny that you like her, though. Come on, get up; I had my breakfast, now you need yours."

* * *

12 NOON

_**Yugi**_

I stretched and yawned. My dreams had been very strange. What had woken me up?

"_**Yugi…**_"

"_**Bakura? Is that you?**_"

"_**Yes. It's time for you to get up. You need to eat so that you have the strength for our rescue mission.**_"

Oh. "_**Okay.**_" I got up and glanced at my nightstand. Lying there was a small pocket-sized statue of a human being curled up. _Horus. It's nice to see what he actually looks like._ I picked it up as I left, I mean why not?

Everyone was together in the main cafeteria. Joey, Mai and Kaiba all had their statues sitting in front of them. I joined them and we all ate in silence. I didn't have to read anyone's minds to know we were all thinking about Anya, and hoping she was okay.

"Well," I said when we were done, "we'd better get what we need and go."

"I already thought of that," Pegasus said, displaying the box we saw in the arena. "Joseph told me about the amulets that give power, and while everyone else was eating, I went and got them."

"And I have Houou," Tea added, holding up the phoenix-ball as Pegasus distributed the energy-medallions evenly among the duelists. There were about twenty in the box.

"Wow." For a moment, I wasn't sure what to say - it seemed like everyone was ahead of me. Then, I asked the obvious question. "Who's coming with us?" By "us," I meant me, Bakura and Kaiba, and that came through in my mind.

Joey, Tristan, and Tea were predictable after everything we've been through. "_We're_ coming!"

Mai looked almost offended that I suggested she stay behind. "Well, _I'm_ going: someone's got to keep Joey out of trouble!"

Joey beamed at her. "I love you too, Mai."

She socked him. Why aren't I surprised?

Pegasus raised his hand. "I'm coming along; if I stayed here, I'd end up _so bored_!" And he set his hand to his forehead, as if being bored would be the worst affliction in the world. What a ham.

Kaiba rolled his eyes, but answered, "If you insist. But you're _not_ riding with me."

* * *

_**Seto**_

"Well, that brings up an interesting point," Mai spoke up, "who's riding with whom? Most of us have monsters that can fly, but…not all of us can summon monsters."

Yugi hesitated. "Well…Horus my magician can fly, but not with more than one passenger easily."

"So you'll be riding alone," I finished, "meaning everyone else needs to find a different partner."

Amazingly, Yugi didn't take any idiotic offense.

Once we got outside, all of us called our monsters. Soon, two dragons, a griffin, and a tall magician stood looking at us, alongside…Houou? Oh, Tea must have summoned her.

I leaped up onto Morpheus' back and looked down. "Bakura, you're coming with me." I was determined to get there first.

He looked a little nervous, but he let me lift him up in front of me.

I decided to be a good boy and wait for everyone else to sort themselves out.

Wheeler looked up; his dragon was almost the same size as Morpheus. "Ah…Hotaru? Could you maybe bend down a bit further?"

Hotaru looked decidedly amused, but he did.

"Okay," he looked behind him, "who's riding with me?"

Tristan decided to go with him, and Tea mounted up behind Mai on Solana's back, tossing Houou's statue-ball to Pegasus.

"So I'm riding the lovely bird?" he cracked.

Houou gave me a look that I could easily read as "this is going to be a long flight." But she lowered down to let him mount anyway.

Horus picked up Yugi, and we all took flight.

"All right, Bakura," I asked, "where's Anya?"

Bakura pulled out a compass that he'd apparently made the same way as we duelists had made our spirit-statues, and closed his eyes. The needle spun and finally pointed off towards the east.

That was all the direction I needed; Morpheus spun off, with the others following close behind.

* * *

IN FLIGHT; 1:20 PM

I needed something to distract myself, even temporarily. But the only thing worth any attention was Bakura's compass.

Well…why not? "How does that compass work, anyway?"

Bakura seemed surprised that I was asking him that. But he answered anyway. "It lets me track what I want it to track."

"Could anyone else use it?"

He cocked his head, studying it. "Well…anyone else _could_, I suppose…but only _I_ can control it."

_Huh?_ That didn't make any sense.

It must have leaked past my shields, for he elaborated, "I can track whatever I need to, whether I really want to or not. Anyone else…it would only point the way to whatever they want the most."

"Oh." After a minute, I asked, "Can I hold it, or would that throw it off our course to Anya?"

"Um…" He studied me. "You said yesterday that you were in love with Kisara. If you want to save her really badly, then we'd stay on course no matter which of us is holding the compass." And he held it out to me.

I took it carefully and held it up. The needle spun wildly for a moment, but then steadied out again – still pointing the direction we were flying.

_I'm coming, Kisara; coming to prove my worth._ And with any luck, no one else was listening.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

* * *

DECEMBER 21; 4:05 PM

NITUPSAR'S FORTRESS DUNGEONS

_**Anya**_

I sat back on my bed to meditate. Sure, I was a prisoner of an evil tyrant, but I still had to keep up my meditations once a day like Celestia suggested, and I'd been too stressed to do it this morning like I normally do.

Besides, nobody had brought me any food or distracting items; what else was I going to do?

_My mind drifted free of my body, and I glanced back, making sure that the glow I could see as my personal shields was holding. It was, and I flew out, letting my consciousness flicker._

_I was not just myself: I was part of my environment, aware of every motion in the very stones, and in the flickering prison, learning every detail about my bubble. I was also aware of the surrounding passageways and rooms. I became every living creature in the cells: rats and spiders seemed to be abundant here._

_I became other people; I was Mark, my old best friend and equally-unwilling fiancée who had disappeared some time ago – so _this_ is where he got to! He was a prisoner, just as I was, and thoroughly miserable, almost drained of his strength. His magical energy was still a decent level, but his will to use it had faded. I was Otieno – he was thinking about what he would like to do with me once I was thoroughly drained of magical energy. Sheesh. I was a sorcerer named Nitupsar, plotting other ways of draining my power since I wasn't actually trying to escape and thus having my energy drained through the bubble. I was…_

_Seto?_

_Ryo?_

_Yugi?_

_My students, my _friends_, all coming on magical creatures, my special Houou included, with their thoughts fixed on different things, but they all added up to the same thing: rescuing me._

That broke my concentration, and my eyes snapped open. "Oh, Nitupsar," I said softly, "you have no idea what you've got coming at you."

* * *

IN FLIGHT; 4:10 PM

_**Seto**_

After what felt like forever – though later Pegasus said it was only three hours – I could see a castle almost like Duelist Kingdom, though made with much darker stone.

Houou surged forward, got between us and it, and stopped, just hovering there.

"Hey! What gives?" Joey yelled as the rest of our monsters pulled into hovers of their own. I was wondering the same thing.

Houou swiveled her head around and made eye contact with Pegasus, her eyes glowing.

He nodded and looked up. "She says we need to determine strategy before we approach any further."

Tristan called out, "Sounds like a plan. Does anyone have anything?"

I thought about the castle. I also thought about what else could be there, both good and evil. Then I sighed. _Come on, Yugi. This is at least partially_ your _party; say something!_

"Well," Yugi said slowly from Horus' arms, "most of us should create a diversion, so that a smaller team can go in and rescue Anya, along with whoever else was captured."

"Great," Mai called. "So who's going in?"

For about five seconds, no one spoke. Then Pegasus raised his hand. "I'd be able to see any dangers approaching, and see the best ways to go."

Tea raised her hand next. "Um…someone should go who can summon monsters. You know?"

Yugi, Joey, Mai and I all exchanged looks. Then I spoke up. "All right, fine. Yugi, you can go."

Yugi stared at me. "Kaiba, I thought you didn't like it when I took the glory."

"This time…" It was going to cost a lot for me to say this, but I could afford it. "Anya's said enough stuff to where I know you have more power than I do, and in more varied areas. You also know how to trust your monsters, which I still don't, and Horus can actually fit inside the castle."

Yugi actually smiled at me. "Those are the most sensible reasons I've heard all day! Okay, I'll go get Anya."

Horus glided forward to Pegasus, and then he actually spoke! "**Houou can't come with us, Pegasus. Climb onto my back, Yugi.**"

Yugi spun around onto his magician's back and clung like a monkey, and Horus picked up Pegasus right off Houou's back, carrying him just like he'd been carrying Yugi a moment ago.

"Oh, Kaiba boy," Pegasus called, "I believe you'd better hang onto this for me." And he threw something up to me.

I caught it with my kinesis and looked at it when it was close enough. _Houou's statue._ "Thanks, Pegasus. And Yugi?"

Yugi looked up with a jerk. "Hm?"

"…Bring Anya back alive."

Yugi just looked at me. Then I heard his answer in my head. "_**Good luck to you, too, Kaiba. Trust the heart of your deck, and you can win anything.**_"

With that, Horus flew forward. Pegasus had turned and said something I couldn't hear, and they veered to the left somewhat.

I shook my head. "Come on, you geeks!" I yelled. "We've got a diversion to make!" And Morpheus veered to the right and, with a battle roar, rushed off towards the fortress. I could hear similar battle-cries and wingbeats behind me.

It made me almost wish I could fly and fight myself. Was this what it meant to feel the heart of a Duel Monster?

And..._anything? Did Yugi really mean 'anything'? And does that include Kisara's heart?_


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

* * *

DECEMBER 21; 4:08 PM

NITUPSAR'S FORTRESS

_**Yugi**_

I could hear some roars behind me, so I figured somebody had summoned a few more monsters. Kaiba, maybe?

Pegasus said something I didn't hear very well to Horus, who started flying down to somewhere inside the wall of the fortress.

Once we landed and Horus set Pegasus down, I called him back into the statue and asked, "Okay, what's going on?"

"I've done a careful search for the best way in, and this opening is the least guarded, leading more or less straight to the dungeons."

The way he said that made me hesitate. "How many guards will we have to get past?"

After a pause, he admitted, "Three."

Three? _How are we going to get past _three_ guards?_

Then something ran onto my still-bare foot. (Anya had forgotten to give us shoes, and nobody had thought to bring it up.) I jumped and looked down.

A rat was standing there, staring up at me and Pegasus.

"Disgusting creature!" Pegasus exclaimed. "My dungeons were much better kept than that!"

I ignored him and knelt down. Somehow, I doubted it would have come out and attracted the attention of a human like it did unless… "Hi, little guy. Did someone send you?" I carefully touched its mind with my own.

_**Scout around. If I find someone who doesn't smell like a guard, and who doesn't have someone who smells like guards near him, try to guide him to this cell.**_

I straightened up again and looked at Pegasus. "That rat's under a compulsion. One of the prisoners must have asked it to help, and sent it out to find someone who can get them out. It wasn't Anya; it didn't feel like her touch. But…"

"But we should try to help as many as we can, I know. So how do we do it?"

I thought about it. Then I carefully sent out a telepathic query. "_**Anya?**_"

"_**Wha – yes, Yugi?**_"

"_**What are my powers, exactly? Can I shift into an animal, or other people into animals?**_"

"_**Yugi, the reason I haven't given you very much specified teaching is because you can do whatever you set your mind to, up to and including shape-shifting. I will say, though, if you want to turn more than one person, you're better off shifting them first if you're a beginner.**_"

"_**Okay, thanks. We're coming to rescue you.**_"

"_**Then get on with it.**_" I felt the smile that came with that, though, so I didn't take offense.

I looked at Pegasus and then grabbed his hand and said, "Brace yourself, I can't tell you how this will feel."

"How what will – _oh_!" I didn't actually hear if he said anything else after that; I was too busy focusing on his becoming a rat.

After a certain point, I had to bend down, or I'd be suspending Pegasus in the air. I'd also closed my eyes, it just looked too weird. His hand had shifted into a rat's claw within my own hand. I counted down seconds in my head, felt no more changes to the hand in mine, and opened my eyes.

And found myself staring at a very frustrated white rat, bigger than the one still hanging around and missing an eye.

"_Well? Are you going to shift yourself now?_"

I blinked, and then closed my eyes and focused. It didn't hurt, but it felt really weird; all my bones stretching out of their original shape and then shrinking, and growing a tail and fur just itched.

When I opened my eyes again, I was staring at both rats, and they were eye level with me. I glanced down at my hands, and tipped onto all fours in surprise: my hands were yellow, and the fur leading up to them was black and red!

"What do you think that means?" I asked, and startled myself: I could still speak English!

Pegasus seemed just as surprised, but he recovered quickly. "Apparently, you'll always have the same colors as your hair." He turned to the brown rat and said, "Lead the way, Scruffy."

It turned and scuttled off, into a hole in the wall. I shrugged and ran after, hearing Pegasus following me.

* * *

FIVE MINUTES LATER

"Are we there yet?" Pegasus complained. I guess he was tired of being a rat.

So was I, but at least I wasn't complaining; that was the third time he asked that. "You're the one who volunteered to come along."

Before he could answer, the lead rat stopped next to another crack in the wall. "_Friend in there_." Then it scuttled off before I could register that I understood that.

I slipped through, followed by Pegasus.

Chained to the wall was a skinny boy about Anya's age, with a white streak in his black hair. His head was hanging, as if he didn't care anymore where he was.

I scuttled over and squeaked, "Hi!"

His head turned just a little to take me in. "Hi, little guy. Where'd you come from?"

One twist of my tail, and his chains came undone. "My name's Yugi Moto. I'm actually human, and Anya taught me all I know. We – Pegasus and I," Pegasus came out and waved, "are here to rescue her."

"Anya's here? And you're going to help me?" He genuinely seemed surprised.

"That's right! Now, do we leave the front way or through the rats' tunnels?"

"Um…better make it the rat's tunnels, if you don't mind."

I shrugged and climbed onto his shoulders. Once there, I focused him down into a rat.

Naturally, this resulted in his falling down under my weight. Not that I was bigger than him, in fact he seemed about between me and Pegasus. Rather, even as a rat he was still very skinny.

"Haven't they been feeding you?" Pegasus asked with disdain.

"Yes. They just make those feedings few and far between." As we scampered through the walls, following another rat who apparently knew where the 'too-bright object with a human inside' was, he explained, "My name's Mark. I was supposed to be Anya's fiancée, but neither of us really liked the idea. Not that she isn't a nice girl, but she's way more powerful than I am, and too…stubborn. She mostly used me as an excuse to keep other boys away. I didn't mind. When I was captured by Otieno – "

"Otieno? You mean, Anya's kinesis teacher?"

"Yeah," and he sounded bitter. "He's a vampire. He captured me so that he could get at Anya. Without me, she couldn't keep away any men who decided to try for her hand."

"How unsporting," Pegasus commented.

"My powers mostly center around understanding animals. I made friends with the rats, and asked them to bring anyone who came to the fortress, free who wasn't a guard, down to me so that they could help me escape. I'd forgotten I did that."

I laughed a little. "Well, the rats didn't."

We'd have said more, but the lead rat stopped by a crack, told us that Anya was inside – not in so few words – and left.

It was the crack between the floor and the bottom edge of a door. "Can we even fit through there?" Pegasus sounded dubious.

Mark gave a rat's grin. "Rats can fit through just about anything. Just try."

He shrugged and stuck his nose under. He got his head under…his shoulders…and he stuck.

Mark watched Pegasus' back legs scrabbling for purchase. Then he pushed me so I wasn't looking and did…something that made Pegasus squeak and, when I looked back, I just saw his tail vanish underneath. He smirked at me and waved his head. "Your turn."

I figured I knew what he'd done, but I struggled to get under myself. I got farther than Pegasus did before I got stuck. Pushing as hard as I could didn't work. Then I felt a sharp pain on my tail! Mark had just bit me!

Don't ask how I got through, but apparently, getting shocked like that does the trick. I popped out like a cork and collided with Pegasus.

"I'd have warned you," Pegasus said primly.

"It's probably better this way," I answered, ruefully studying my tail. It seemed okay. When I looked up, Mark was in the room. "How'd you get in here?"

"I knew the rats' tricks." He looked up and gasped.

I already knew what we were going to see, but I looked anyway. That glowing bubble was bigger than I thought it would be –

Of course. I was a rat. I grabbed both Mark and Pegasus and focused on shifting all of us back. My perspective changed dramatically, and both of my friends yelped in surprise.

Anya's bubble was still big even in human form, but it wasn't as colossal as when we were rats. I hadn't decided if I was going to say anything when Anya looked at us. "Hey there. What took so long?"

"Sorry for the delay," Pegasus answered, "but we decided to take a detour to rescue – "

"I know. Hi, Mark. It's been a while."

"So…" I studied the sphere, "how do we get you out?"

"I was fed once some point before you came. I didn't eat it, of course," she waved at a loaf of bread at the bottom of the bubble, "but it proved to me that objects can go in through the surface easily."

"Hm…" I carefully reached my hand through the surface. It tingled like anything, but I could put my hand through. Then I tried pulling my hand back out. It was slower, like pulling through thick mud, but my hand came back out. Shoving my hand back through, I told her, "Grab my hand – maybe I can pull you out!"

She cocked an eyebrow at me, but she grabbed hold. Bracing my feet, I pulled my hand back out. It came, right up until her hand touched the edge of the bubble. Then we both stopped.

My feet started slipping with my effort, so I thought a couple bricks up far enough out of the floor in front of and to either side of my feet to where if I moved any more, it wouldn't be any direction but backward.

Pegasus and Mark both grabbed my arm and chest, and I gave them blocks of their own. With their help, I could feel our hands giving a little, but not really enough.

This was hurting her. I could tell by the look on her face. But there wasn't really anything we could do about it.

Well…maybe one thing. "Horus," I muttered under my breath, and felt the energy surge through and out of the statue in my pocket.

Horus took one look at our situation and took hold of me, reaching past Pegasus to do so. He didn't need to brace his feet, because he was levitating.

Our hands slid slowly through the bubble's surface…slowly…until one of Anya's fingers came through on our side and…

The bubble exploded! All of us flew backwards, including Horus!

Mark and Horus each hit the wall, but Horus kept all the rest of us from having a very hard landing: Pegasus hit Horus, I hit Pegasus, and Anya hit me.

"What happened?" Mark asked, looking very bewildered.

Anya started laughing, sounding giddy. "The bubble apparently couldn't take my breaching the surface." Then she sobered up quickly and got off me. "Otieno said he was coming back, and I could sense his mind coming this way a minute before you got here. We'd better work quickly." She stood up and started gesturing in the air, muttering to herself with extreme focus. The door opened right as she finished her motions and closed her fist.

Otieno let out the most bizarre squawk and stumbled back, letting us rush past him.

"He's only stunned. Mark, grab Yugi; Maximillion, grab hold of my hand. If he tries anything with kinesis, it won't affect either of us, but you two will feel it."

I felt Mark grab hold of my arm as we ran. "But what about Horus?"

"Won't matter."

I felt us slow down, and felt an almost slimy touch on my skin. I decided right then that I wasn't about to deal with this and pulled a card from my deck. Glancing at it, I whispered, "Dark Magician, do something to him!"

I heard something happen behind us, that involved a scream that didn't sound human, and the touch was gone. Our speed picked back up, and Anya called back, "Great work! Now follow!" Offhand to us, she muttered, "I hope everyone else is doing something resembling smart."

* * *

OUTSIDE; 4:15 PM

_**Seto**_

I looked around at all the monsters summoned, and their opponents. Joey's Red-Eyes Black Dragon and Flame Swordsman were thrashing out against some black bat-type things, and Mai's Harpies and Pet Dragon were making short work of some more. I'd summoned my Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon and, truth to tell, was feeling exhausted with the force of that summoning.

_How many of those things _are_ there?_ I wondered. They seemed to fill the sky. Solana, Houou and our two soul dragons had their claws full dealing with them.

I could see some creep in a black robe – what _was_ it with evil and black robes? – gesturing from the back of the biggest, probably directing this whole puppet show. He'd said his name once, but I couldn't remember it.

Then an explosion came from the fortress behind him. Something about it was familiar…

"Nice work, Curse of Dragon!" And out came that dragon, with four passengers and Horus flying next to it with the Dark Magician! And two passengers had white hair!

"What took you so long?" Joey yelled.

"Who cares? We're here!" Yugi retorted.

Anya straightened up. "Houou!"

The phoenix swung around, caught her as she leaped off, and flew back.

Anya held her hand up. "My friends, lend me your strength!"

I saw all of everyone slump somewhat, and all the monsters disappeared. Houou swung around to catch Yugi, Pegasus and that other kid as the Curse of Dragon disappeared. After a second, I realized I wasn't feeling any drain. Why…oh. She felt like I was weak enough. Well, let's prove her wrong.

I carefully tapped my link with Mokuba. Sure enough, he had plenty of energy bubbling over, practically asking for me to borrow some. I opted to take about half of it, and offered it hesitantly to Anya.

I felt it fade quickly. "_**Thank you, Seto.**_"

I barely saw what happened next: Yugi and Anya clasped hands, lifted their free hands, and yelled out, "**_The Winged Dragon of Ra!_**"

I never saw the dragon itself, because right around there I passed out.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

* * *

DECEMBER 23; 2:05 PM

_**Anya**_

Slowly, I opened my eyes and groaned. "Ow, my head; I feel like I just built a whole castle all by myself."

An echoing laugh reached my ears. "That's to be expected, summoning the Winged Dragon of Ra like you did, even with Yugi's help."

I turned in the direction of the voice and tuned to magic-sight. Atem was sitting next to me! "Oh! Hey, Atem. Who summoned you?"

He shrugged. "I suppose technically I summoned myself. Somebody needed to get all of you home, and Yugi was too tired. Mentally, I mean."

I grinned. "I think 'magically' is the word you're searching for, which embodies both physical and mental energy. Well, speaking of Yugi," I started to get up and –

Light shot through my brain and I tipped backward again.

"Oh," he added, completely conversational, "did I mention that one of your teachers told me to tell you that healing yourself was advisable to getting up immediately?"

_Drat you._ "Thank you for telling me." I settled back down again and focused for a second, letting energy pulse through to all the most exhausted places on me. Then I sat up, slowly this time, and asked, "Did we get him?"

Kudos to me, I got him to laugh. "Looks like I'm going to have to break news to Joey and Tristan."

_Huh?_ Then it came to me. "Had they laid a bet on what I'd ask?"

"Yes; Joey bet you'd ask if everyone was all right _before_ you asked if the danger was over."

"Oh." I felt a little guilty. "How _is_ everyone, anyway?"

"They're fine. Yugi's probably almost awake by now, if you're up. Horus wouldn't leave his side."

"He wouldn't go back into his statue? That figures; when a spirit monster is particularly worried about its…partner, it doesn't like to go in. All the others would only go back because they can't fit inside all at once."

"I'd wondered about that." He stood up and held out his arm with a smile. "Shall we go?"

I slowly stood up and put my arm through his, smirking a little. "Certainly, Honorable Pharaoh." As we walked, I cocked my head. "Okay, I have three more questions for you."

"Ask away."

"One, where are we?"

He glanced up. "I believe we're in the largest building on your school grounds."

"Two, _did we get him?_ You never answered before."

He winked at me. "I almost sidetracked you, didn't I? Yes, you got him; you and Yugi."

I sighed in relief. "And third, how long was I out?"

"Two days."

I stopped and stared at him for a second. Then I grinned. "No wonder I'm hungry!"

We walked in on our friends laughing.

Joey jumped up. "Come on, don't keep us in suspense! What did she ask first?"

Atem looked at Ryo and winked. Then he said, and Ryo repeated, "She said, 'Did we get him?'"

Joey moaned, "Aw, _man!_" while Tristan grinned and stated, "You'll owe me when we get home!"

Seto hadn't stopped looking at me. I was just about to ask when Yugi came in. Alone; he must have told Horus that he was okay and sent him back to the statue.

"Hi, Anya; hi, guys!"

After a bit of a reunion, I realized that we'd have to make some plans for getting past the crowds outside and back to Yugi's world. And I had the perfect plan for it.

"Guys? I can guarantee that as soon as we step outside, we'll be mobbed. And I want to get you all home as soon as possible. So here's what we'll do…"

* * *

_**Yugi**_

We all followed her and Mark outside, where we were met by cheers. Anya let them yell for a minute, and then held up her hand. "My people, I thank you for this welcome. Now the evil that's been hanging over Chaotia for years has been vanquished." After a few more cheers, Anya went on. "This isn't to say that another evil won't arise in some later point in time, so I shall appoint a Guardian." She held up a hand to stave off a vote, "I won't be remaining here for much longer. I will go with my friends to their world, where I can learn more about them. Until the time, _if any,_ that I return, my old friend and fiancée Mark," she clapped him on the shoulder, "will watch over you in my place."

"B-but Anya," Mark stammered, "I'm not strong enough to – "

I never heard what she said to him – she was keeping us out of that link – but he calmed down and actually waved to the crowds who'd started cheering him.

Then Anya looked at us. "Come on, people: time to hit the road."

We went back inside and found that somebody – or was it Anya-kinetic? – had packed our things into neat bundles that could be held in one hand. They floated up and to each of us.

"Okay," she instructed, "the way we're going to do this is, I'm going to do all the transporting. You'll all be holding onto me, and as I reach a location, I'll tell you your stop and you'll let go. Some quick-kinesis will, in the case of those who have definite locations, adjust your clothing and set the bundles where your subconscious will say is the most convenient location."

Everyone accepted that, she held up her arms, and each of us carefully grabbed hold of her: Joey and Tristan both had hold of her right arm, Mai and Tea were holding her left arm, Kaiba had her left hand, I had her right, and Pegasus and Bakura were both holding onto her hair.

The next instant, the world turned into fog! I couldn't see or feel anything around me!

"_Don't panic, this is what happened to me,"_ Pegasus said into our heads.

* * *

"_**Maximillion, this is your stop.**_"

I sensed, rather than saw, him fade away into the mists around us.

* * *

"_**Mai, here's your stop.**_"

"_**Later, Mai,**_" Joey said as Mai faded.

* * *

"_**Seto, this is where you get off.**_"

I felt a slight hesitation, and then his presence faded.

* * *

"_**Ryo, here's your stop.**_"

A quiet "Thank you," and then he was gone.

* * *

"_**Yugi, Joey, Tristan, Tea…this is the final stop.**_"

The mists cleared and showed us all at the Moto Game shop, wearing…well, we weren't wearing brown anymore!

Then Anya collapsed.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

* * *

MOTO GAME SHOP

DECEMBER 24; 10:00 AM

_**Yugi**_

Grandpa poked his head in. "Yugi, Mokuba came by with a letter from Kaiba."

I glanced at Anya, who was still sleeping on the couch where we'd moved her yesterday, and came to take the letter.

She woke up while I was still reading it. "Good morning, Yugi. What's going on?"

"Hey, Anya. Apparently, Kaiba's having a Christmas party at his house, and you and I are invited."

She cocked an eyebrow at me with a smile. "I have nothing to wear."

I couldn't help it: I laughed. "What? Didn't you have lots of nice clothes at Chaotia?"

"Yeah…but I wanted my new wardrobe to be more like what was here."

"Oh." I thought about that for a second. Then I grinned. "I'll call Tea; she can get you ready for the party in time!"

* * *

1:30 PM

_**Tea**_

Anya was a hard person to shop for.

Not because she had a hard look to dress – her hair was simple enough, and it was easy to match her eyes to something. It was just that she was very uneasy at the mall.

"I'm not used to so much loud noise," she confessed to me about halfway through our trip.

"Don't worry about it," I reassured her, "after a few trips, you won't even notice it! By the way, I was invited to Kaiba's party, too."

"Really? And are you going?"

"Of course!"

* * *

KAIBA'S HOUSE

6:30 PM

_**Atem**_

I was very amused when Yugi summoned me. "So, you didn't want me to miss out on a party?"

"Not really," Yugi answered. "Besides, considering who is here," he waved at Joey, Tristan, Tea, Bakura and Anya, "It's practically a victory party. You were a big help over there."

I waved that off. "It was all your doing, along with Anya."

Now, I was watching Kaiba standing off to one side. He seemed…nervous, somehow. This was odd, because Kaiba's never nervous.

Anya did invite me to dance once that night, wearing a big smile. Tea had done a very good job in getting her to look like she'd grown up here.

Then, right around the end of the party, Kaiba spoke up. "Anya?"

Anya turned to look at him. "Yeah, Seto, what is it?"

He hesitated.

At once, the two had my full attention. Kaiba doesn't hesitate.

"Well…I…what I mean to say is…ah…"

Tristan yelled from somewhere behind me. "Hang in there!"

Kaiba glared at him, but before he could say anything, Anya prompted, "Go on."

"Well…" Then he knelt down on one knee in front of her – I heard Mokuba start laughing from somewhere to my right – and pulled something out of his pocket, offering it to her. "Kisara Anastasia Maygo, will you marry me?"

I looked at Yugi, ignoring the choking sounds coming from Joey and Bakura. "Did you know this was going to happen?"

"I saw it coming, though not very far in advance." Then he glanced up. "You think they'll notice that the mistletoe's hanging right there?"

I covered my mouth to hide a smile of my own; _I_ hadn't noticed!

Anya mainly looked shocked. Even I could feel the emotion radiating from her: shock, disbelief, and…something else.

Finally, she managed to get a sentence out. "Get up."

Clearly not sure what to expect, he stood up.

I realized she was going to kiss him about three seconds before she did, pulling him towards her with his tie.

Yugi grinned at me. "I guess that's a yes!"

I nodded, letting my smile show. "I suppose she really did know the mistletoe was there."


End file.
